Watch out for these holiday scams

0:00You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, it's Marielle. This time of year, we're conditioned to spend money freely, right? It's like, of course I have to buy presents for all of these people. And, oh, it's Black Friday. Big sale. Might as well get all this stuff. And now is the time of year to give to charity. Obviously nothing wrong with that. But this is a season when we tend to open up our wallets. It's also a busy time when we're a little distracted. And all of this can make us more vulnerable to scams. There's a lot of hustle and bustle during the holiday season, so there's a lot more opportunities for scammers to steal from us.

0:41This is Amy Nofsiger, Senior Director of Fraud Victim Support at AARP's Fraud Watch Network. You might know AARP as a membership organization focused on people 50 plus, but when it comes to fraud, they serve anyone of any age. And fraud does happen to everyone. I've gotten scammed buying something online. And I've had some near misses, too. It's nothing to be ashamed of, but we do want you to know how to protect yourself. On this episode of Life Kit, holiday season scams, we'll talk about the most common ways people get scammed this time of year and what we can do to stay safe.

1:31Let's talk about online shopping during the holidays. What are the big red flags people should be aware of? I like to talk about the hot ticket item. And I honestly don't know what it is this year. My children are older, right? But I remember there were race cars that I was looking for or the perfect tennis shoe, right? If you're looking for that item and it's sold out at all the major retailers and you go online and you do a search for it and you find it at a store and not only do they have it, but they have it less than what you've seen other places. Honestly, that's a red flag because more often than not, what's going to happen is you're going to purchase from this vendor who maybe just set up shop a couple of days ago.

2:18And all it is, is a way to steal your personal information in your credit card. And we recently did a survey and we actually found out that 39 % of people that we talked to had experienced fraud when seeking to buy a product through an online ad. So my best recommendation is if you are looking for the hot ticket item or any ticket item for that matter, and you're using a vendor that you haven't normally used, take the name of the vendor, put it in a new search bar, and type the word scam, fraud, complaint after it, and use other shoppers' experiences with that company to guide your own. I even did this for myself yesterday when I was trying to purchase something for my older son.

3:03What'd you find out? It was an ad that I saw on social media. The product looked great, and I took the name of the company, put it in with the word scam fraud, complain after it, and it had like a 1.9 rating and said, buyer beware, do not use this store. Yeah, I think in general, it seems like it's a bad idea to shop through an Instagram ad or a social media ad, like to just click through. I do not recommend it unless you absolutely know that that is the vendor and maybe you follow that vendor. People don't really understand that a lot of these ads that are on social media are not vetted. We have this level of comfort when we go to this platform thinking that the platform vets these ads for us, but they don't.

3:51Yeah. I've seen this happen. Someone in my family ordered something. It was supposed to be a book, but instead they eventually got a piece of paper with a picture of a book on it, which is so upsetting. It is upsetting. And what we hear from consumers is then oftentimes they try to, you know, make a claim. But because the company shipped something, it's really hard to verify that what they shipped wasn't what they advertised. And so oftentimes the consumer is left paying for that product. Well, I know you can report fraud or do a chargeback on your credit card. And I guess it must depend on the credit card company and how good they are about giving those chargebacks.

4:42But to your point, that's what's really important is when you're shopping online, always use a credit card. Don't use a debit card. Don't use Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle. Certainly don't pay by going to a crypto ATM machine because you just have greater consumer protections with a credit card. All right, takeaway one, when you're shopping online, learn as much as you can about a company before you click buy. If you see a product on Amazon from a third-party seller, or if you're served up an ad on social media, don't just buy the product on the spot. Open a separate browser tab and search for the name of the company.

5:18See what their website looks like, what reviews say, where the company is located, anything that helps you ground this in reality. You can also search for the company name alongside the words scam, fraud, complaint, and see what that brings up. If a company claims to sell a product that meets a certain standard or has a certificate of approval, double check that they're telling the truth. One time I bought a water filter from my bathroom sink and the company had a really glossy looking website and social media presence. And it had a certificate on its website from NSF, a public health and safety group that tests and certifies products like this.

5:54But later, after I'd been using the water filter for a while, I looked on the NSF website to see if I could find this company in its database, and I couldn't. The certificate was a fake. NSF later confirmed that when I emailed them. So be careful. And also, always use your credit card when you're shopping online. Credit cards have stronger protections if you do get scammed.

6:18Let's talk about gift cards. People buy these a lot around the holidays for things like, you know, your office white elephant or your family member who you don't know what to get. How can you get scammed when you're buying a gift card? So this has been going on for quite some time, but we know there's probably going to be more instances of it during the holiday. What happens is groups of organized crime rings, criminals, go to stores and they actually remove stacks of gift cards off of those big carousels that we see at the stores. They then go and log every gift card number and PIN number into their system, then load those gift cards back onto the carousel, but they have all the pertinent information.

7:05So when the unsuspecting victim goes to buy the gift card for a teacher's gift or, you know, for the white elephant, like you said, and load money on that card, the criminals get notified that there's now money on that card and they instantly drain it. So you could not even have left the store yet and that money could be drained off of the card. My best advice with this kind of fraud, if you are buying a hard copy, a tangible gift card, buy the ones up close to the front of the store where maybe more eyes have been on it, like close to the point of sale by customer service or by the cashier. Consider getting an e-gift card.

7:48You can even write in the card that says, hey, check your email tomorrow. There'll be an e-gift card for you. Also, always save that receipt. That receipt that comes with it is proof that you loaded money on the card and And kind of important, the time you load it. So if you loaded the gift card with$100 at 12.01 p.m. and it's cashed at 12.02 in a different state, well, then that's a pretty good indication that someone has drained that gift card. Takeaway two, if you're buying a gift card for someone in-store, try to get one at the register, ideally with a card that hasn't been on display at all.

8:26Or you could buy the card from the retailer's website and always keep your receipt. Something else Amy has told us in previous episodes, if you get a text or an email asking you to buy a gift card for someone, don't do it. This happened to a friend of mine. He got a text from someone claiming to be his boss's boss and asking if he could buy gift cards for his department at work as a thank you for everything they're doing. The text said, don't worry, you'll get reimbursed. Just send me a picture of the gift cards and the receipts. My friend did not take the bait. And it was, of course, a scam.

9:01Let's talk about donations to charity. How can people get scammed when they're donating? Criminals will set up fake charities. When we did our research recently, we asked this question, and 35 % of the people said that they believed that they had gotten a donation request that seemed fake or fraudulent in the last 12 months. I mean, that's a pretty high number. I recommend that people only donate to who you have vetted and who you know. And we want people to give. We just want them to give wisely. So if there is a charity that's come across your phone, your mail, whatever it is, take the name of the charity and do your own research and then give money directly to the charity via the way that they want you to give on their website.

9:48I do not recommend giving over the phone or at the front door. You don't have the time to do your research. What about when you're walking down the street and people are like, hey, do you have a minute? You have such a beautiful smile. Oh, well, thank you. I do have a beautiful smile. Actually, I don't have a minute right now, but if you have a business card or a flyer about your charity, I'll go home and do some research, and I'll decide if I want to give some money to you then. Wow, that was good. That's practice. That's what we need to do. we need to practice these kind of refusal scripts. Takeaway three, it's a beautiful thing that you want to donate to charity.

10:24But again, do your research. Only donate to organizations that you have vetted. And if someone is soliciting donations on the street, take down the information and look it up online when you get home. After the break, we'll have more about holiday season scams.

10:51Let's talk about toll road scams. What are these? So I think everybody probably got one of these over the summer. It was a text message that came unsolicited that said, you went on a toll road and you did not pay your toll and the charge is$6. Click this link to pay your toll or you'll be fined even greater. We actually found out that 58 % of the people we surveyed actually got this text. I know I certainly did. And I travel on a lot of tolls. I travel through many states. And oftentimes, you go in and out on the road, and you're not sure if you hit that toll or whatever it is. And the issue with this scam is that because they weren't asking for a lot of money, they were saying it's$6, it's$7.50.

11:36People thought, okay, well, I'll just pay the$7.50. Maybe I crossed that toll. I think I did. I can't remember. So the criminals weren't after that$7. What they were after was your credit card number. So the minute you, quote, paid that toll via the link that they sent you, then they had your credit card information and all the pertinent information to go on a shopping spree. What's interesting about this scam in particular is they then followed up with kind of another scam saying, well, since you didn't pay that$7 toll, now the DMV is going to suspend your license. Oh no. We call them kind of like a reload scam.

12:17It's like, so they didn't scam you the first time and now they're threatening you because you refused the first scam, but they're threatening you with another scam saying that now they're the DMV. The reason we're talking about this during the holidays is because people are going to be traveling a lot to see family and friends, and they're going to most likely be on a toll road. So what are the best practices here? I mean, how does one pay tolls? Usually one pays tolls by getting a letter from the toll road in the mail. Or even if you're in a rental car, like a couple of weeks ago, I was in a rental car, and they have my credit card on file.

12:54So when I hit the toll, which I did, they just automatically charged my credit card. I recommend to never pay anything, but especially one of these tolls that comes in through an unsolicited text message with a link. If you think you maybe went on a toll road, find who manages that toll road, go directly to their website. You can use your information, whether it's your license plate number or however, and find out if you legitimately need to pay the toll that way. All right. What about fake delivery texts? Like you have a package that's from UPS or from the U.S. Postal Service. Click this link.

13:35Yeah, these are popular all year round, but we again know with the holiday season, we are going to be expecting packages, shipping packages. Again, the criminals will use this to their advantage, and they'll send out these fake notifications saying that they're from a shipping company and that there's a problem with your accounts, there is a missing piece of your address, and they're going to suspend or, you know, take over your package if you don't respond. I tell people, if you're sending out packages, you know, keep a list. Like, okay, mom is getting this from this vendor. Dad's getting this from this vendor.

14:14You can sometimes even see who the shipping company is and just write that down just to try to keep track. But most of the time, if there is ever a problem with a package that you are sending, you're going to hear from the vendor, not the shipping company. Because vendors oftentimes use different shipping companies. It's not like they're always exclusive to one. If you get one of these and you think, oh my gosh, someone is sending me something, and USPS is sending me this text, you can reach out to USPS. You can reach out to FedEx and verify your address. Or the gift giver would give me a heads up and say, hey, I'm sending you something.

14:58I got an email from the vendor. There's a problem. It's going to be three days late. But again, this is nothing but a phishing scam. All right, takeaway four. If you get a message telling you that you went through a toll and you owe money, don't click the link. Don't respond by text or email. Think about how you normally pay tolls. Maybe you have an easy pass or you have a toll account or you get a letter from the state in the mail. Or if you're using a rental car, the toll charge appears on your credit card later. Go through the official channels. Same thing goes for text messages saying you got a package.

15:33You just need to click here and pay the extra fee or click here and enter your information. These are scams. Any other scams that people should be aware of over the holidays? The other thing is travel scams. Last minute, okay, I am going to go surprise mom and dad for Christmas, but the ticket prices are so expensive. I'm going to try to do a search to see if I can find a great deal. Criminals are putting up fake websites, thinking you're at a legitimate travel site, an airline, a car rental. We have a lot of car rental scams where they think they're getting a great deal, but they have to prepay with a prepaid gift card.

16:13They get to their location. There is no car. Try to stay to the vendors that you have a relationship with that you know. And this also goes one step further. If you are traveling this time of year and you have to get in touch with customer service of your car rental or your hotel or your airline, go directly to their website. We have a lot of people who have been victimized by trying to do like a search for their airline and coming up with a fake website. Go directly to the vendor. Use their mode of customer service, whether it's text, chat, phone, but don't try to circumvent customer service this time of year because scammers are there waiting for you.

17:01What should you do if you fall for a scam. Yeah, if you find yourself a victim of a scam, you've lost money, personal information. I mean, first and foremost, stop the communication with the criminal. You're not going to shame them into giving your money back. And then report it. I mean, you can report it to local law enforcement. You can report it to, you know, IC3.gov. That's the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. You can report it to us on the Fraud Watch Network helpline. We're a free service for anyone of any age. You really just need to report it and report it quickly. If they by chance have your credit card number, your bank account number, you know, call those financial institutions immediately so they can't have any more access.

17:43Amy, thank you so much. Oh my gosh, you're so welcome. Thank you. All right, time for a recap. Takeaway one, when you're shopping online, learn as much as you can about a company before you buy. Open a separate browser tab, and search for the name of the company. See what their website looks like, what independent reviews say, where the company is located, anything that helps you ground this in reality. And always use your credit card when you're shopping online. Those come with stronger protections. Takeaway two, if you're buying a gift card in store, try to get one at the register, ideally with a card that hasn't been on display.

18:20You can also buy the card from the retailer's website and always keep your receipt. If someone texts you asking you to buy some gift cards and send them the info, that is almost always a scam. Takeaway three, only donate to charities that you have vetted. And if someone solicits donations from you on the street and you do want to give, take down the information and look it up online when you get home. Takeaway four, if you get a message telling you that you went through a toll and you owe money now, don't click the link, don't respond by text or email. Think about how you normally pay tolls and go through those channels.

18:55Same thing for text messages saying you got a package. You can always reach out to USPS, UPS, FedEx, or a retailer directly. And if you do fall for a scam, report it as quickly as possible. There may be a way to get your money back. And also, this helps establish you as a victim of crime in case your credit card company or your bank needs a police report for their internal investigation. And also, Amy says, reporting a crime and talking about it is the first step in healing from the experience. and that's our show hey you're a fan of life kit right well don't keep us a secret tell a friend send them an episode you think they'd like and thank you for helping spread the word about our show this episode of life kit was produced by margaret serino our visuals editor is beck harlan and our digital editor is malika greeb megan kane is our senior supervising editor and beth donovan is our executive producer.

19:51Our production team also includes Andy Tegel, Claire Marie Schneider, Lennon Sherburn, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Kwasi Lee. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.