Keep the Presents Safe: Holiday Scam Prevention Strategies

Welcome to the Season of Scamming. You need to consider where you are vulnerable this holiday season and how to better protect your livelihood.

With so many people practicing gift giving, donating time and using resources to help others, the spirit of generosity can be swiftly taken advantage of by criminals who disarm people with words and ultimately steal valuables or monies.

If you want to be ready to safeguard your valuables and accounts, keep reading. It may just save your assets.

Below are 12 scams plaguing consumers today along with a brief description of how they unfold. The first step in loss prevention is knowing when and where these scams occur.

1.    Social Media Marketplace – Scammers will generate ads on social media that look entirely legitimate and shows off your favorite brands or new products on sale from other purchases you made. At the end of which is a digital check out screen asking for personal information and payment options.

Counterattack - type in the company’s name into a search engine and find the sale on their website.

2.    Home Services – House cleaning, home repairs or installations at impossibly low prices online that require a one-time deposit prior to the work beginning via Zelle or digital wallet.

Counterattack – Call the company and request a quote, ask to meet the contractor and compare prices with other companies offering the same service.

3.    Company Impersonation – Banks will never ask you to move money via withdrawal or wire transfer to resolve fraudulent activity. These scams sometimes involve more than one person to make the scenario complex and more believable.

Counterattack – Hang up and call the number on the back of your bank card and confirm the situation or report the attempt.

4.    Fake Listings & Rental Property – Criminals will pose as real estate agents and require a deposit to “hold the listing,” or “secure your bid” due to high demand.

Counterattack - Call the rental company and ask to see the property in-person because you want to see the place before making a deposit.

5.  Police & Government – Those who are impersonating a law enforcement officer or federal agent (FBI/IRS) claiming you need to pay a fee for protection, often using your personal information details and threatening language.

Counterattack – Simply hang up the call, locate the municipality or agency that called and speak to the next available watch commander or supervisor with your story ready.

6.    Pets – Scams featuring adorable animals for sale that do not exist, stating there is a lot of interest and if you want to bring home the pet, you need to deposit money immediately for the animal’s health care bills.

Counterattack - Go find the breeder or shelter online and request to see the animal in-person.

7.    Tech Support – Claiming to be from a very well-known company and will suggest there is a virus or billing issue with the only solution to be remote controlling your computer/device.

Counterattack – Never click on virus software ads or allow anyone you do not know to control your computer.

8.    Identity Theft – The most classic scam, where people try to extract sensitive information like date of birth, social security number or banking information to steal your identity

Counterattack – Do not carry your SSN card, carry only credit cards you plan pay with, set up alerts on all your bank accounts and never offer up any of this sensitive information to anyone who calls or emails you.

9.    Investment – Also grossly known now as “pig butchering,” where a scammer will build a healthy relationship over weeks of communication before asking for a large sum of money to invest in legitimate looking platforms. This is a slow burn scam; “fattening” a victim before stealing money and vanishing.

Counterattack – Beware of social media groups or forums, huge ROI immediately, crypto requests, wiring money and any sort of forced investment urgency.

10. Artificial Intelligence – Everything from cloning voices, including your family, to falsifying images, this one is particularly hard to identify. Using a family member, scammers will make it sound like someone’s hurt or in trouble and needs your help.

Counterattack – Call the person back on a line you know belongs to them or contact someone who knows this person and see if there is anything going on. A.I. scams don’t look or feel like scams. They use love to manipulate their victim’s money.

11. Money Mules – A nuanced scam, this would be for job seekers applying for a new position with a company that looks legitimate. However, during the hiring process the applicant is asked to send, receive or transfer money from compromised accounts and asked to keep some as a signing bonus.

Counterattack – Absolutely no employer will ever send you a check to deposit and ask for cash back. You will never have to pay to be hired, either.

12. Gift Card – Social media ads disguised as legitimate gift card portals that trick users into buying one and then sharing the codes with others. Once the code is shared the balance disappears and the card is emptied into someone else’s account.

Counterattack – If the primary payment method is a gift card, it is a scam. If you are sent to an assistance operator because of a monetary complication, it is also a scam. Hang up and go directly to a company website or in store to purchase the gift card.