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Santa's
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Stay ho-ho-home for the
holidays.
Scammers know that, due to social distancing, a record number of
consumers will be
mailing gifts this year. Because of this, phones across the
country have been buzzing with bogus texts from what appear to be major package
carriers responsible for getting the gifts to their destinations. The
convincing communications are similar to those that FedEx or the USPS
might send to customers who signed up for texts to let them know when a
package is en route or if there's been a holdup. Clever criminals know
that using your first name in their texts will make you more likely to
click on the included links--and even better if these web addresses
appear to list tracking numbers. Unfortunately, clicking will deliver a
heaping pile of malware to your digital doorstep, or deliver you to an
imitation website that tricks you into giving up your personal or financial
info. Learn how to recognize and report spam/scam text messages
(in general), and remember to protect your real deliveries from porch pirates. (One more tip: Masks make great stocking stuffers this season!)
Brick and mortar
is so 2019. Various Amazon scams are ramping up as
shoppers, concerned about catching COVID, flock to the online retail
giant for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and pretty much the entire holiday
season. Much of the criminal contact involves phone calls, with con artists
impersonating company reps to trick customers into believing that they
are owed a refund. In some cases (like this one, where a woman lost almost $29,000), the
criminals claim to have refunded "too much" bad money (i.e.,
worthless checks) in order to persuade the victim to send their good
money back. (Learn more about fake check scams here.) In other instances, the calls instruct
recipients to press a menu button to "reinstate" an
allegedly cancelled account--for a fee, of course. Sometimes you're told
that you've been signed up for an Amazon Prime account that you never
signed up for; other times, that there are problems with the delivery of
the items you've ordered. Scammers are even claiming to be with Amazon "tech support"
to gain control of computers remotely and drain victims' bank accounts.
Regardless of the scenario, if you're concerned about your Amazon
account, go independently to the real website, log in and give it a gander. Now that
you're logged in, click on the link for "customer service" and
select the issue you're dealing with, whether it be bothersome billing or
a missing Mandalorian. In any case, do not click on any links
you receive, call "employees" who've left you voicemails, etc.
The young and
the reckless. Can't fall for an Amazon scam because you
don't buy from Amazon? Way to go off-grid! But purchasing presents
outside of "big box" websites can put you more at risk of
entering your credit card number into one of the many imitation sites
that criminals create every holiday season. You may have found yourself
on such a site after clicking a bogus ad you saw on social media for a
"closing" sale on expensive items (e.g., Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and then Donna). As
the BBB points out, taking this route can result in receiving
counterfeit goods--or no goods at all. The pitch can sound particularly real now,
in the age of COVID, since many businesses are going out of biz. Think you're
too clever to get conned this way because you're a "digital
native"? Think again: The BBB's 2020 Online Purchase Scams
Report reveals that shoppers aged 35-44 are most likely
to pull the trigger and hit "purchase," particularly if they
believe the item they're looking at is scarce or listed at a great price.
The BBB hasn't left you defenseless, however: Check out its excellent tips for smart shopping online. |
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Tips! |
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If you do only one thing...Capital One has
created an educational video in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese)
titled "Protect Yourself Against Common Financial Scams." The
video summarizes major warning signs of fraud, as well as ways to avoid
becoming a victim--and it's shareable. (Seriously, if you do only one
thing today, share it to keep a friend or family member from financial
devastation.) Is someone contacting you "with a sense of
urgency" in an "unsolicited way," the video's narrator
asks? Is the message "unexpected, scary, urgent"? Is the sender
asking you to validate account information, or prompting you to click on
a strange hyperlink? Probably
a scam. "So, what do you do if you notice these
signs?" the narrator queries. And since it created this video,
Capital One has the answers: First, resist the pressure to respond
quickly. Second, never share financial or personal information. And certainly don't
wire money to whoever claims to be contacting you!
Scams that leave
you shook. Truly appalling imposter scams are going
around and, TBH, while we expect no less for 2020, some of them should come
with trigger warnings. Beware: The goriest texts, which attempt to extort money by
threatening to kill or dismember a loved one (sometimes including photos
of "limbs and bodies"), seem to be coming from sources claiming
to represent the international criminal gang MS-13, while others are
shocking even without
photos, leaving recipients gasping as they read off a list of family
members' full names (information that, you should be reminded, can easily
be found online nowadays). Some of the scams attempt to extort petrified parents, even using the
names of their children, while still others target grandparents. And some
try to terrify immigrants, claiming to originate from
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents looking to arrest
them or have them deported. Knowledge is power, however, and knowing what
to expect will give you the power to fight fraud by sending this
frightening filth over to the Federal Trade Commission and its law enforcement
partners!
Naughty or nice?
Open enrollment runs through early and mid-December for Medicare and
Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage, respectively, which also gives
scammers opportunities to contact beneficiaries requesting--or, in some
cases, demanding--Medicare ID or Social Security numbers. In more polite
instances, the con artists will introduce themselves as being with the
government, representing a helpful "health care benefits"
advocacy group, or some other nice-sounding nonsense. Or, in Grinch mode,
they may threaten you, claiming they'll suspend your benefits if you
don't comply with their demands. Whether they play nice or not, they
usually have a compelling reason why they're demanding your personal
info, such as Medicare "replacing paper cards with plastic ones." For
more info on how to spot these scams (and what to do if you're targeted),
click here.
Trick or TREAS
(IRS). If you get a text claiming you've "received a direct deposit
of $1,200 from COVID-19 TREAS FUND" (sic)--we guess that's supposed
to mean "U.S. Treasury" fund--and that "further action is
required to accept this payment into your account," the only action you
should take is reporting the cruel trick to the IRS. Definitely do not click on any
links, and certainly don't put your personal or financial information
into the linked-to lookalike IRS "Get My Payment" website. It's
totally bogus! While there is (sadly) no second stimulus payment, if you
haven't applied for the first one yet, you can still do so until Nov. 21. |
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