You're watching southwest Florida.

InFocus.

Coming up, scam artists tap into a smarter stealthier tool for their schemes.

Cryptocurrency.

How Florida has become one of the nation's leaders in crypto fraud.

And getting ahead of mosquito infestations that can lead to disease.

Why?

Lee County is leaning on poultry power and preparing your pet for midlife.

The steps you can take to assist your four legged friend as they leave the puppy years behind.

Hello, I'm Sandra Victorova.

Thank you for joining us.

Law enforcement around the country is fighting a staggering rise in crimes connected to cryptocurrency, costing victims more than $9 billion in losses last year.

Florida has the third most crypto fraud cases in the country, according to a report from the FBI.

Many of those crimes have been linked to crypto ATMs Over the past 18 months, victims in Fort Myers have reported more than half $1 million in losses, either being duped into using crypto ATMs or participating in crypto investment scams.

As WGCUs Jennifer Crawford reports, the Fort Myers Police Department is sounding the alarm on the fastest growing crime in the country.

As you can see that the, the cryptocurrency ATM appears very similar to a regular fiat currency ATM.

Fort Myers police Detective David Dietz is on a crusade against crypto ATM crime.

The problem is, is that we have crypto ATMs that are all over the city.

There's somewhere around 30, and we have scammers that are overseas primarily.

Scammers will call and they typically will use the name of somebody from a police department.

They'll give a badge number.

They make it sound very professional in order to get that individual under duress and get them moving, to try to get those funds immediately.

One victim in Fort Myers first received a call from A239 area code from someone identifying himself as a local deputy.

You need it to let me know that I had two charges pending against me.

One for failure to appear and one for contempt of court, and that I needed to get it straightened out or I would be jailed.

He sent me this from United States District Court with this official looking seal.

It was a mobile contact order.

And then the other one had to do with the gag order, which didn't allow me to talk to anyone, during this mobile escort process.

Despite her doubts, she was terrified at the thought of being arrested.

I was crying, but I couldn't catch my breath.

It was like I was having a panic attack.

She scrambled to get $15,000 in cash from her Wells Fargo bank account to deposit in what she was told was a U.S. Department of Treasury account at an ATM.

They told her to take the receipt to the Lee County Sheriff's Office the next day as proof of payment to avoid arrest.

Anybody who ever calls you claiming to be law enforcement, anybody is claiming to be the IRS.

Anybody claiming to be anybody and asking you to send the money through, whether it be through Crypto Cash App, gift cards.

First thing they should do is hang up the phone.

Contact law enforcement.

The victim did call police shortly after depositing the cash, but it was too late.

So once you put it in a crypto ATM, it's exchanged.

It's done.

You cannot reverse it.

Det says her case is an example of an alarming trend of crypto, ATM and crypto investment scams.

He's been investigating with the City of Fort Myers.

Of the cases over the last year and a half.

We've got approximately 18 cases, and it's over a half $1 million just from those 18 cases.

He spends a significant amount of time tracing the crypto, a painstaking process with little chance of recovering the stolen cash or making it arrest.

I feel angry.

I still feel stupid and just.

I'm very sad.

I tell everybody, don't go to crypto ATMs.

The crypto ATMs are for drug dealers and people that are getting scammed.

In Fort Myers, I'm Jennifer Crawford reporting for WGCU news.

Helping us to understand the scope of the growth in cryptocurrency crime and how we can protect ourselves, is Special Agent Justin Crenshaw with the FBI.

He leads a cyber squad out of the Tampa field office, which covers 18 counties, including southwest Florida.

Agent Crenshaw, thank you for joining us.

Sander.

Thank you very much for having me.

So we want to start with the basics here.

We want you to help us understand what is cryptocurrency and why it is just so attractive now to criminals.

So cryptocurrency or virtual currency.

Its a digital money.

It's designed to be secure and decentralized.

It's not influenced by governments, banks, other institutions.

It uses, a blockchain, it's called that helps as a decentralized public ledger and basically, the end result is that when somebody pays for a transaction with crypto, the recipient can be certain that he or she is receiving the specified amount of crypto without duplicate payments, those payments can't be pulled back.

And so the benefit to for criminals is because it's decentralized.

It doesn't go through governments, it doesn't go through banks like traditional fiat currency.

So it's easier for criminals to maintain anonymity, very easy for them to move it.

Between exchanges and then very difficult for us in law enforcement to recover those funds.

So as a result, crypto has really become the currency of choice for cyber criminals.

Help us to understand the types of, folks who are being targeted, what it looks like in your Tampa field office.

I know you cover 18 counties.

What are the really the most common ways people are getting scammed?

So cryptocurrency, you know, these these are often traditional scams that, were used, they did previously use wire transfers or prepaid visa cards, things like that.

And now those have really been surpassed by cryptocurrency as the the means of choice to facilitate crime.

And so it's oftentimes traditional, investment schemes where we see, criminals establishing a relationship with victims.

These are oftentimes they'll, these are online relationships.

They'll start out as a friendship or even sometimes a romantic relationship.

And then as the they develop trust, the scammers will, and get the victims to start sending money.

Sometimes via those traditional, forms with PayPal payments or, bank transfers.

But then they're quick to try to get the victims to move to crypto.

And so some of the different scams could be like lottery scams, or often we see them impersonating government officials.

It's the IRS calling about a tax issue or a bank that is calling with an issue.

They're trying to get those victims.

They're trying to establish trust.

They're trying to get the victims to believe that they need to act now, because oftentimes this this schemes also introduce a sense of urgency trying to get the victims to act without thinking.

And then anymore, it's traditional scams.

But with the new twist, I'm using crypto for currency.

We we've also seen an uptick in crypto ATMs, being used.

So we know that some communities have banned crypto ATMs, and we know that local, state and federal lawmakers are looking at either restricting or regulating these crypto ATMs.

Do you think that is absolutely necessary at this point?

It's a complicated issue.

I I'm sure there are some legitimate uses for crypto atm, but from my perspective, they absolutely facilitate, a large amount of fraud.

And the way that works is I establish I talked about these relationships that the scammers will establish on online platforms, and then in order to get paid, they'll send the victims to get cash from their bank and then to go to these crypto ATMs, along with the QR code generally.

And that QR code is linked to the scammers account.

So at the crypto ATM, they put in cash, it's immediately wired to the scammers account and then oftentimes impossible to recover.

How large amounts of money are we talking about victims losing.

So hundreds sometimes, you know, anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars to, really life savings.

Special Agent Justin Crenshaw with the FBI.

Thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me, Sandra.

Thank you.

And we'll continue to monitor the development with crypto ATMs and fraud.

You can stick with Southwest Florida and focus for future coverage.

If you believe that children are growing up faster than ever, there science to support that.

Research shows on average, girls get their period just before the age of 12.

The age of puberty has been starting earlier for decades, and can start as young as eight years old in girls and nine in boys.

So how do parents deal with these changes?

To help answer those questions?

We're joined by Doctor Cheryl Ziegler, a clinical psychologist and author of The Crucial Years.

Doctor Ziegler, thank you for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me.

So if puberty starting earlier, does that mean we should be having some tough conversations about things like sex earlier?

It does.

And it also has big implications for parents in terms of the conversations that they're going to be having, more like third grade and fourth grade, and also for educational systems to really look at their sex ed programs, their health ed programs, whatever they're calling them.

Because if we stay at the pace where that we're at, which is giving kids information more like fifth grade, we're already behind the ball on what kids are actually going through.

So in your book, The Crucial Years, which I know, you focus on the ages, sort of between 6 and 12.

If we're talking about puberty starting earlier, does that mean their emotional maturity is keeping up as well?

It's such a good question.

So what we know is that the chemicals in their brain are being triggered because puberty starts in the brain.

So we're seeing mood fluctuations and attitudes or behaviors that look more like what we imagine teenagers to look like.

But emotionally, they are still their actual age, their chronological age.

And the mismatch is a huge concern.

They're looking older.

They're having big, wild emotions that are older.

And so that can be really challenging for both parents and educators to figure out how to meet all of their needs when they're so unevenly distributed.

Right now.

So I know one of the things that you focus on is this idea of being able to communicate better with children.

There's so many stressors that I think kids now are dealing with.

We're seeing anxiety, in ways that we haven't seen before.

So what is your message to parents?

How do we open up those lines of communication so they can talk about the pressures that they feel?

I think the first thing for parents is awareness of what the pressures are that kids are feeling.

So a couple of things that come to mind.

And also the research show is childhood feels like it's shrinking.

They have these small windows to just get to be kids while they're also, let's say during those school age years.

So what the pressures are is because of media, social media, just exposure in general.

If they come home and they tell you that they had even, let's say like a lockdown drill or an active shooter drill, those are words that these kids are growing up with, not just words, but also even practices that, again, we didn't have.

So just ask open ended questions.

As a parent, you know, while you're driving or while you're sitting at the dinner table and just say, what's that like for you?

I never had to do that.

How do you feel when that's happening?

Just keeping that open allows the kid to know when they come home.

They've got a safe space and a safe person to talk about the things that are driving the anxiety epidemic that we're seeing in younger and younger kids.

A doctor stickler for can.

And real quick on this, is there anything we can do to allow our children to be children longer, even though their bodies may be changing?

Yes, I love that question.

I think we do need to be on the frontlines of preserving childhood and play.

So what that means is prolonging screen time as much as possible, prolonging when you give your kid a smartphone, prolonging how much time they actually spend on those screens.

And so what do you want to do with replacing that is have them go outside, have them play games, even if their bodies are bigger and taller and they look older.

Tell the world to this is my kid.

They're only 7 or 8 years old.

Play with them.

Ask them what their interests are.

Don't comment on their bodies, and don't take away the opportunity for them to just play and learn all the things they learn through getting outside and being with other kids.

That's probably the biggest thing I think parents can do right now.

Doctor Ziegler, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Mosquito season is in full force in southwest Florida, and Lee County is working to get ahead by tracking the insects that transmit diseases like West Nile virus.

The county has constructed 17 chicken coops for that surveillance.

WGCUs Eddie Stewart introduces us to the Sentinel chickens.

I definitely have my favorites like number three at the Lehigh Coop.

Love her because I put her on the tailgate of the truck and she eats all the bugs so that they don't get to me.

Erica Campbell is an Arbor virus technician at Lee County Mosquito Control.

Each week, she drives to 18 chicken coops spread throughout the region from Alva to Bonita Springs.

There, she feeds the birds, tops off their water, and then takes blood samples.

Every bird has a little tag on its leg and that matches up to a vial.

So this one is 23 zero 55.

We're going to be taking blood samples from 23 zero 55 all the way through 23 zero 60.

These samples are a vital tool in monitoring the location and spread of potentially deadly mosquito borne illnesses.

Identifying where disease carrying mosquitoes might be before an outbreak is a challenge.

So that one's 20 306.

One solution is to do equal pesticide treatment everywhere.

That risks over exposure to the human community.

And mosquitoes can build an immunity to those pesticides.

Lee County mosquito control takes a targeted approach, focusing on surveillance.

District director Doctor David Hall explained that sentinel chickens are not a specific breed.

Instead, they serve as indicator of where the district needs to start treatment.

This is the canary in the coal mine.

These chickens, when they start popping positive, we can see where the activity is really beginning to occur and then we know where to concentrate our efforts.

Blood samples are collected and taken back to headquarters for testing.

Lee County is the only district in the state to test in house, so they get results quickly.

If a virus is discovered in an area, treatment trucks and planes head out with pesticides.

This is repeated until the chicken stop testing positive, indicating that the virus in that area is eliminated.

There's no need to worry about the health of the chickens.

They are what's called a dead end host, meaning their bodies fight off mosquito borne illness and don't pass it on to other animals.

When we pull two meals, though, some residents take issue with using chickens.

Communications Director Jen McBride says it's important to think about the bigger picture of disease control.

The thing that people forget is that we don't really have to think on a day to day basis about mosquito borne viruses.

We're blessed enough to have this layer of protection.

That first layer is, of course, the sentinel chickens, because they might get it before we do.

So they're kind of like the sentinel piece.

They're really looking out for us.

Each sentinel chicken spends about a year in the coops.

They are then home to families and farms to live out the rest of their lives.

Campbell thinks the Sentinel Chicken program is worth it, even for the chickens.

Hold them up in a towel burrito.

They serve a really good purpose.

Obviously, nobody wants to take blood samples from chickens, but since I'm in the position, I can guarantee that they're being treated well, I said.

For WGCU news, I'm Eddie Stewart.

23 million American households got a pet during the pandemic that, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Now, five years later, many of those animals are entering midlife, and that means pet parents can notice behavioral, cognitive, and physical changes in their animals.

For more on what are and aren't normal signs of aging and pets, we are joined by Doctor Kelly Fishman, veterinarian and founder of Strut Animal Mobility Specialists.

Thank you so much for joining us, doctor.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Happy to be here.

So we were just talking and you said that dogs can go through a midlife crisis.

What did you mean by that?

Yeah, I jokingly said they're not going to use your credit card to buy a Corvette, but, you know, it's it's something that's very important because so much of our veterinary care is front loaded at puppy care.

So when you get a puppy, there's a lots of visits with the veterinarian.

And then about midlife, you know, we didn't have you see the vet for problems or once a year for a routine vaccination.

But there isn't, you know, any kind of understanding that as your dog enters midlife, there are some things that are happening internally that, you can actually help make their senior years better by starting things in midlife.

So knowing that there's things that we can do and then there are changes that pet parents can look for.

So let's first talk about the physical changes.

What are the big physical changes happening midlife.

So aside from grain of the whiskers, you know, especially it's really cute when they get, the gray hair around their eyes and their nose.

It just is so, you know, lovely to see our older dogs.

They also get vision changes.

It's harder for them to see, harder to smell.

And then also hearing is decreased.

The one that I really care about and I love to spread awareness of because most veterinarians don't know and most, pet parents don't know is just like we lose more muscle, less midlife, so we're losing muscle midlife.

So are they.

So dogs and cats midlife start to lose muscle and then that just, you know, kind of speeds up as they age and become seniors.

So that loss of muscle is a big deal to me.

The other big change is their metabolism slows.

So, more prone to becoming overweight.

You fed things when they're puppy, there's a lab and it's really hungry.

And Kitty just about everything and it all.

Now all of a sudden he's kind of a little portly and you're like, I don't know.

I've been the same cup of kibble since he was a puppy.

That's what I hear.

And I'm like, well, you know, their metabolism is slow too.

That happens to our pets as well.

Okay.

Help, help us understand that the changes that happen from a behavioral perspective.

Is it true that that, you know, dogs and cats become more anxious, let's say more fearful as they age?

Yeah.

So so sometimes what can happen is, you know, pain can manifest as a behavior change.

So what that means is if you have a dog that's midlife and they're suffering from something like arthritis, which in dogs and cats, the number one orthopedic issue is arthritis.

So most dogs that are midlife and senior are suffering from it.

And sometimes they'll be subtle behavior changes that you'll notice before a limb.

So for example, being less playful, slowing down on walks and then other kind of behavioral things like the other big thing I think of in our midlife pets is actually, and especially seniors.

It's like the start of what could be like a doggie dementia.

And that's just like manifested as nighttime restlessness, you know, weird sleep wake patterns, you know, pacing at night, being anxious, those types of things.

So sometimes, like, there are things like that that are showing, as our dogs are aging, which actually can be concerning.

And people would want to talk to the vet about that since you brought up the loss of muscle mass again, should we be increasing the exercise then for our pets to help come back?

That yes, exactly.

So just like with us, we realize that as people are aging, it's so important to like, stay strong, keep moving.

You know, we heard it.

If you lose it, if you don't use it, you'll lose it.

So it's the same thing with dogs.

So we have to keep them active and not only keep them active, keep them healthy, but it will prevent things or kind of lessen things that we talked about, for example, that doggie dementia, if they have exercise, we could actually have a little they have less signs of that as they become seniors.

If you do exercise on a dog with arthritis, we used to think that those dogs shouldn't be exercised at all, but we now we know that dogs with arthritis and cats with arthritis that move feel better.

So that's also an important thing to kind of think about.

And just maintaining muscle mass and strength is such a good thing to do for us and for our dogs.

Doctor Fishman, thank you so much for this great advice.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you Sandra.

Finding a better bargain.

After the break, some shoppers are finding thrifty ways to save some cash.

Consumers looking for ways to deal with inflation and a higher cost of living have found one way through their local thrift shops, especially for pricier items like clothing.

Kate Cronin explains how the rise in retail prices have been beneficial for thrift stores.

As cost of living increases, shoppers are switching from department stores to secondhand stores.

These thrift shops are great ways to find affordably priced, high value items, adds for your community.

Thrifting can take more time than your average stop at a department store.

But shoppers like Eva Tarak say it pays off when she finds quality clothing for a fraction of big store prices.

I love this story because I always find unique pieces who really have good deals and it's reliable.

Thrifting over department stores has always been something I like, cared about because of sustainability, unique pieces and honestly, I can just find more.

So I think that's for my personal style.

The stores like Second Act Thrift on South Cleveland Avenue in Saint John, the 23rd on South Tamiami Trail.

Typically price their merchandise between 3 and $8, with sales as low as $1.

Typically we are we are better priced than the big box stores or a lot of what you find online, not including some of the the cheaper brands and such.

But there's also, I would say there is also a bit of an interest in the vintage or the retro.

We have a lot of regulars who come in once, twice and three times a week and just browse are clothing, so we're always putting something else out and they say the same thing that prices are just never gotten outrageous.

Buying new.

It's just not worth it.

Store owners also say they've seen a spike in the number of young shoppers attracted by budget friendly options in vintage styles.

The company Ibisworld researches various industries and recently released a study saying thrift shops are part of a nearly $14.5 billion business that's growing larger each year.

We like seeing the young coming in, so maybe they're knowing the value of a dollar or more and, you know, instead of spending $50 for a shirt, the same shirt, they can get here for 5 or $7.

Many thrift stores have charitable missions, so you can get a good deal and support your community.

Second Act donates all of its profits to abuse counseling and treatment.

Incorporated in Saint John, the 23rd uses its proceeds for community outreach and Catholic education.

For WGCU news, I'm Kate Cronin.

Understanding.

Alligator.

Alcatraz.

Next week, a special program looking into the environmental concerns of the Everglades Detention Center, as well as the legal issues and controversies surrounding that facility.

We thank you for joining us today.

Don't forget to like and subscribe to our WGCU News YouTube channel where you can find all of our stories and those extended interviews.

We hope you have a great day and we'll see you next week.