Florida emergency officials told the state’s residents to watch out for scammers in the area who are posing as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers.
Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi informed the county’s residents in a recorded video that the agency has gotten reports of people walking around with fake FEMA badges and asking people for their banking information.
Tapfumaneyi warned that FEMA does not ask people for financial information in order to wire money and asked the state’s residents “to be very diligent.”
“FEMA will never ask you for your bank account information to be able to wire you money,” Tapfumaneyi said in a video. “That is something that they are going to direct you to do information on an online system. So don’t give out your banking information to anybody that is coming to knock at your door, that is not an indication that they are there to help you.”
Tapfumaneyi also reminded residents that FEMA workers will always have a government badge “and they will be helping you to sign up on a portal that is an online portal.”
Due to the proliferation of misinformation around the government’s response to Hurricane Helene, FEMA created a “rumor response” page earlier this month to aid residents in finding information from trusted sources and to dispel rumors.
Officials on the local, state and federal levels have said the massive spread of misinformation has made the recovery efforts harder. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the volume of misinformation surrounding Hurricanes Helene and Milton has gone down, but added that some of it is still out there.
Milton hit Sarasota County last week as a Category 3 hurricane, shortly after Hurricane Helene passed through the state before reaching parts of North Carolina and Tennessee.
