Attorney General Moody's Week In Review
This week, we announced the launch of a massive, statewide child safety initiative. On average, more than 800,000 children go missing nationwide every year—with FDLE reporting more than 25,000 incidents of missing children statewide in 2021.
When a child goes missing, time is one of the most crucial factors in locating and reuniting them with their family. In these nightmare scenarios, it’s vital that law enforcement quickly receives accurate identification information.
That is where a Child ID Kit can be beneficial. These kits allow parents to record fingerprints, DNA, photographs, and other information about their children. Parents can then safely store these kits and hopefully never use them, but should something go wrong—these kits can be quickly provided to law enforcement to help speed up search efforts.
We wanted to make sure parents have this tool at their disposal, and I am excited that we are bringing 250,000 Child ID Kits to Florida—one for every kindergarten student in the state. These kits will soon be given to school resource officers to distribute at schools in all 67 counties in Florida.
I want to encourage parents as we head into this holiday break, to please fill out these kits. More information about the Child ID Kits can be found here.
Stay safe, Florida.
Protecting Floridians
Attorney General Moody Takes Action to Shut Down Massive Moving Scam
Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a legal action against three individuals, two holding companies and multiple fraudulent moving brokerage businesses doing business under a variety of names, including Gold Standard Moving and Storage. According to Attorney General Moody’s Consumer Protection investigation, the businesses acted as a common enterprise to deceive more than 400 Floridians into believing the company professionally handled moving services and promised to provide refunds if anything went wrong. Instead, the companies hired third parties to complete the moving services at subpar quality and refused to provide refunds.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “The defendants promised top-quality moving services, but instead provided shoddy work, higher-than-advertised prices and loads of headaches for people simply trying to relocate. We are taking legal action to shut down this moving scam and recover funds for the hundreds of consumers harmed by this company’s deceptive practices.” More.
Attorney General Moody Files Court Action Against Miami Company Sending Foreign Robocalls Around US
Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a court action to stop the flood of foreign-based robocalls that a Miami company, Smartbiz Telecom, LLC, routes into the United States. The Florida Attorney General’s Office is seeking injunctive relief, consumer restitution and civil penalties pursuant to the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “The defendants helped facilitate the transmission of millions of foreign-based robocalls into the United States. They were warned multiple times about these harmful actions but refused to stop. Now, we are asking a court to shut them down and force them to pay restitution to consumers harmed by scams associated with these foreign-based robocalls.” More.
VIDEO: Attorney General Moody Releases Scams at a Glance: Gift Card Grifters
Attorney General Ashley Moody is releasing a new Scams at a Glance resource to help Floridians spot and avoid gift card scams. As holiday shoppers search for the perfect present, gift cards are often a popular option. One study suggests that consumers plan to spend nearly half of holiday budgets on these items. However, the Federal Trade Commission reports that gift card scams account for more than a quarter of the cases the agency investigates. Attorney General Moody is releasing Scams at a Glance: Gift Card Grifters to help consumers avoid falling for scammers’ tricks during the holiday season.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “Gift cards are the most common present given during the holiday season, so it is no surprise scammers devise schemes in an attempt to exploit these popular gifts. Before you buy or use a gift card, check out our new Scams at a Glance resource to be better prepared to spot and avoid these schemes.” More.
VIDEO CONSUMER ALERT: Google Voice Identity Theft is On the Rise
Attorney General Ashley Moody is issuing a Consumer Alert warning Floridians about a Google Voice scam that appears to be on the rise. According to some reports, Google Voice scams are a top scam of 2022—and the Identity Theft Resource Center reports nearly 4,000 complaints about the scam in 2021, even reporting a preliminary increase this year. Attorney General Moody is warning Floridians about Google Voice identity theft and offering tips to avoid falling prey.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “Scammers are preying on users who post in online marketplaces—posing as buyers in an effort to access a victim’s authentication code. If the scammer accesses the code and is able to set up a Google Voice account in a victim’s name, they may execute additional schemes that can cause great harm to the original target and potentially many other unsuspecting consumers. To avoid Google Voice identity theft, check out our latest Consumer Alert.” More.
Events
This week, Attorney General Ashley Moody launched the Child ID Kit program at One Buc Place in Tampa for all Florida kindergarten students. The kits will be available for the parents of all kindergarten students in Florida and will help in the event of a missing child by giving law enforcement more identifying information.