Aventura police outline rising fraud trends and prevention steps at public town hall

Aventura Police Department detectives warned residents Wednesday night that fraud schemes have grown more frequent and more technologically sophisticated, and they urged people — especially seniors and condominium residents — to verify requests for money or remote access to computers before acting. "Fraud, scams, and crimes have increased tremendously over the years," an Aventura police official said during the department's economic-crimes informational session.

The seminar featured Detective Ken Seely and Detective Sandra Marquez of the department's economic crimes unit, which Seely said was established in February 2019 and now includes two full-time detectives. Seely described common and emerging scams — including SIM swapping, business email compromise, crypto scams, account takeovers and spoofing — and urged simple steps residents can take to limit risk: enable account notifications, set transfer or porting passcodes with phone carriers, and refuse remote-access requests. "Protect yourself. You are the first and the last line in many cases of defense when it comes down to being a victim of fraud," Seely said.

Why it matters: Aventura's detectives said local investigations increasingly require federal partners and special tools because offenders use cross‑jurisdictional networks, synthetic identities and AI-generated content to impersonate victims or trusted contacts. The department described multiagency work with the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. Marshals and Miami‑Dade partners to investigate identity theft rings and secure arrests and indictments. Seely said the unit recovered about 80% of roughly $500,000 stolen in a grandparent‑scam investigation and that federal sentences in one multi-target case ranged from two to 16 years.

Officials laid out concrete examples and red flags. Seely explained SIM swapping — when attackers port a phone number to a new device and use that number to receive account recovery codes — and recommended asking carriers to add a porting passcode. He described business email compromise tactics in which attackers create hidden email rules that funnel messages to a covert folder, then intercept and redirect funds at closing or payment time. On crypto, detectives warned that once digital currency moves to overseas wallets it is rarely recovered: "Once that crypto moves, you have less than a 1% chance of that money being recovered," Seely said.

Speakers also answered audience questions about scams that target property and government benefits, fake job offers that send fraudulent checks, Cash App and peer‑to‑peer refund scams, and text/call spoofing that impersonates banks or utilities. Commissioner Amit Bloom, who helped organize the event, shared a personal anecdote about helping his mother avoid a remote‑access scam: "She called me in a panic... the warning alarm came on her screen and told her she had a virus," Bloom said, and he credited the seminar as part of broader local prevention work.

Detectives emphasized practical, repeatable steps: never give remote access to your computer, verify any change in payment instructions by calling a known number (not a number supplied in an email or search result), check statements and online accounts frequently, and consider pausing seldom‑used debit/credit cards via bank apps. They recommended registering property with county property‑appraiser alert services to detect unauthorized deed changes and said banks now expect customers to monitor accounts closely and may not automatically refund losses when there is evidence of customer complacency.

Ending: The detectives offered contact information and asked residents to report suspected fraud to the Aventura Police Department; they said email inquiries will generally receive a reply within 24 hours but noted staff may be in the field. The session closed with an invitation for one‑on‑one follow‑ups and local resources for people who suspect they have been targeted.