YULEE, Fla. — In an Action News Jax exclusive, Ring doorbell video showed a suspicious man on a Yulee mom's doorstep Tuesday.
Jamie Fredericks feared he was trying to swindle her, or worse. “It said that you ordered a child safety kit from us?” the man is heard saying.
“No,” Fredericks said.
Fredericks said the man had her personal information, but she never ordered a kit from anyone. “He said, ‘Come with me to my car. It’ll only take 30 minutes to fill out some paperwork and I can get the safety kit for you,” Fredericks said. “It just immediately set me off. Why would I go with you to your car? You’re some stranger. I don’t know you.”
Protecting her 2-year-old inside, Fredericks got rid of the man and later called the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies and the Better Business Bureau are warning of scammers using these methods to obtain sensitive information on children to steal their identities.
They’re vulnerable, since it may not be caught for years.
In an Action News Jax investigation last year, we showed you there were nearly 1,300 complaints of child identity theft in 15 counties of Florida and Georgia over a six-month span. “That’s really scary,” Fredericks said. “She doesn’t have any kind of credit or anything, and it’s scary to think that this could hurt her future.” The sheriff said there was no crime here, but he agrees the man is acting suspiciously. He said there’s a county ordinance against solicitation.
Deputies said if you want a child safety kit -- in case your child were ever to go missing -- the Sheriff’s Office provides them for free.
After Action News Jax started asking questions, Nassau County deputies put out an alert about child safety kit scams, telling people to call them if they have a similar problem.