Local, state, and federal authorities warned about the risk of fraud, as government representatives continue to visit the homes of Broward County’s flood emergency victims who have applied for federal disaster assistance.
Authorities expect fraudsters to use stolen identities — names, addresses, and Social Security numbers — in an attempt to steal the aid that is supposed to help the victims whose homes were damaged on April 12-14.
“Please be very careful,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said about the risk of impostors going door-to-door or calling victims.
Florida’s State Emergency Response Team issued a warning on Tuesday: “Con artists and criminals may try to obtain money or steal personal information through fraud or identity theft after a disaster.”
Trantalis and John Mills, a Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, held a news conference on Tuesday morning at The Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale.
“Right now, FEMA has crews going door to door in the hardest-hit neighborhoods,” Trantalis said.
The process started after President Joe Biden’s administration approved Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida Disaster Declaration on Friday. FEMA announced on Saturday that Broward County residents were eligible to apply for aid.
“We are trying to help survivors jumpstart their recovery and provide a hand-up so they can begin to recover,” Mills said.
Housing inspectors and other federal representatives will never request information that residents already provided to FEMA at the beginning of the disaster assistance application process.
“They will have photo IDs and they will never ever charge for assistance,” Trantalis said.
SERT warned: “Don’t give your banking information to a person claiming to be a FEMA housing inspector. FEMA inspectors are never authorized to collect your personal financial information.”
Mills said FEMA doesn’t pay for what insurance providers have already covered. He added the canvassing work by FEMA will continue through this week or longer.
“The door to door work is for making sure that people don’t fall through the cracks,” Mill said.
The FEMA application for disaster assistance can be filled online. Mills also said applicants need to keep their FEMA application number private for verification or application changes.
“Everyone who applies will receive a nine-digit FEMA ID number, kind of like a confirmation number,” Mills said. “Hold on to that and when you get back in touch with FEMA to update your contact information, update your mailing address, or phone number, have that number at the ready.”
SERT also warned: “If a FEMA Inspector comes to your home and you did not submit a FEMA application, your information may have been used without your knowledge to create a FEMA application.”
In that case, call the FEMA Helpline, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., at 1-800-621-3362, and the Office of the Attorney General at 1-866-966-7226, and file an identity theft report with a local law enforcement agency.
“We are working to set up a disaster recovery center,” Trantalis said.
Watch the news conference
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