Scammers Target St. Petersburg Police Chief

Thieves hoping for an easy mark generally are smart enough to avoid trying to scam a chief of police.

That, however, wasn’t the case in St. Petersburg recently when Chief Anthony Holloway found himself the target of an attempted scam. It seems someone sent Holloway a check for $2,450. While that was a nice haul right before the holidays to be sure, Holloway didn’t buy it.

The chief enlisted investigators from the department’s Economic Crimes Unit to vet the check’s authenticity before he attempted to deposit it into his account. As suspected, the check was bogus even though it looked quite legitimate.

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“Detectives say this type of scam comes in many forms, usually with instructions to deposit the check and send a ‘fee’ to a particular address, often overseas,” the department wrote in an email to media. The thieves get to keep the “fee” that’s been sent to them by victims while victims may find themselves on the hook for money spent against the deposited check that ultimately bounces in their banks.

Reports about similar scams come into the department several times a week.

The attempted pilfering of Holloway’s finances serves as a reminder to everyone, the email said.

“If it’s too good to be true, it usually is.”