Brandon — Phone calls from someone claiming to be a police officer, FBI agent, bank representative, and more are on the rise, and the callers are out for large sums of money.
“In January 2026, residents lost over $100,000,” said Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Brandon substation commander Lt. DeVita. “Just this year alone, we’ve had several hundred thousand taken from Brandon Township residents.”
Devita said that one of the major issues with these cases is that the lost funds are often not able to be recovered.
“Most of these people, once they get the money, they use a series of wire frauds or Crypto Currency to move it,” he said. “And once that money is gone, it goes to another country that doesn’t cooperate with us as law enforcement.”
Many of the solicitations happen via cell phone. Common scams include someone claiming to be a law enforcement officer demanding funds for a crime,…
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Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.