Holiday Scam Season is Here: We Want You to Be Safe!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones from both of us!
This week the holiday shopping season gets underway and scammers are out there waiting. We’ve been doing this for a long time and it seems after every holiday season we get a lot of reports of people falling victim to holiday scams.
Those of you who have been with us for a while know that we care about you and do all we can to keep you informed so you will be safer on the internet. There are more scams now than ever before, the Christmas Holiday Shopping season brings the scammers are out in full force to take advantage of the Holiday spirit.
We don’t want you to be a victim of any kind of scam. Be it a tech support scam, a telephone scam, the Amazon package scam, a “romance” scam, or any of the other seemingly endless scams that are out there. And things are only going to get worse over the next few weeks.
The FBI has a very well-written and informative website describing many different types of scams including holiday scams. It’s full of information to help you stay safe during the holiday season and all year long. Click this link to visit the FBI’s scam warning site (the link will open in a new browser tab so you won’t lose your place here).
Here’s a video from the FBI… please take a couple of minutes to watch it. The money you save may be your own!
Also, we’re featuring an article from USA Today. We want you to be safe. The more informed you are, the safer you’ll be this holiday season.
Don’t let fraudsters ruin your holidays. Protect yourself with these tips.
Consumers are expected to spend billions this holiday season on gifts, including online.
But with that comes scammers who are looking for their piece of the pie, tricking consumers into fraudulent purchases or gaining access to their funds.
Fraudsters are hoping consumers are busy during the holiday season, which may lead them to put their guard down, Margarita Alvarez, senior vice president of consumer risk programs at Wells Fargo, told USA TODAY.
“You also have scammers out there working to be able to capitalize on the higher volume of transactions that are occurring and that leads our customers to be more susceptible to these scams,” Alvarez said.
Consumers lose billions to scammers each year
A recent report from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance said scammers had bilked $1.03 trillion from victims worldwide – a number the alliance said is probably actually larger since many scam victims are too embarrassed to report the crime.
A February report from the Federal Trade Commission said U.S. consumers had reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023.
A new Better Business Bureau scam study update warns holiday shoppers to be on alert, especially for fake advertisements that offer deep discounts and hard-to-find popular items. The BBB has had a 125% rise in scam reports, including scams via social media offering popular items like beauty products and viral tumbler mugs.
“Over 80% of reports to BBB indicated that they lost money, making online purchase scams one of the most common scams the public encounters,” the BBB said in a press release.
Then there’s theft of goods at delivery. A recent CNET report found more than $76 billion worth of packages could be vulnerable to porch theft this holiday season…
Please read the rest of this article here.
We wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving and a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!