Silas Vieira
December 7, 2020
The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year, especially for scammers. While you are plotting how to surprise your family members with their gifts, criminals are plotting ways of scheming you out of your hard-earned money. Lucky for you, our team has been monitoring some of the scam trends this year and we’re here to tell you what to look out for.
Have you ever mindlessly shared with a relative that you need something, and they jumped at the thought of getting it for you? Especially around the holidays, our loved ones often feel extra giving and are compelled to try and make it a joyous occasion for everyone. Scammers take special advantage of this boost in generosity, and contact vulnerable individuals pretending to be a loved one in need. The targets of these scams are often elderly individuals, who are more susceptible to falling victim to these types of tricks. Because of this, this type of scam is sometimes referred to as “grandparent scam.”
This Federal Trade Commission video shows one form of the impostor scam, called the Family Emergency Scam. In this type of scam, the con artists call the target family member pretending to be in an emergency – such as being arrested, being stranded somewhere, or even being held hostage.
Shopping for a living sounds a little crazy but is actually a legitimate source of income for some people. The practice consists of a person, called a secret shopper, going into a store to purchase a product and to take notes about the experience in the process. The shopper is later reimbursed for the product and compensated for their time and effort.
While these secret shopping gigs are real jobs to some folks, the companies providing these jobs are reputable companies and rarely charge individuals in order to “sign-up” for employment. This is where the scam comes in – the scammer charges an initiation fee and promises to compensate the shopper at the end of the experience, but instead keeps the initiation fee and disappears entirely. While being charged to participate in something is not the only sign of a scam, you should always be cautious if being asked to invest with promises of easy returns down the line.
We’ve all gotten calls from charities and various organizations asking for donations. Good people have donated over the phone, and many hard-working individuals earn their living by soliciting donations on the phone on behalf of an organization. That being said, we’d strongly advise you to be careful if you receive a call requesting a donation. If you would like to donate to someone requesting your help over the phone, you should hang up and research the cause or name of the organization before reaching back out. If a trustworthy phone number is available, you should return the call at that number and provide your donation. Alternatively, if a trustworthy website is available, you can provide an online donation.
This has been a hard year for everyone, and we don’t want to discourage you from donating to a cause if you are able to do so. If you need help determining if you are donating to a real charity, or if you would just like to stay informed in case you get a call requesting a donation, this video from the Federal Trade Commission is a great place to get started:
Do you remember the last time you unexpectedly received a free gift card offer from someone you didn’t know? How about that special one-time offer on that awesome computer for only $5? Yeah, me neither. If you get an email with an offer that sounds too good to be true, then it just might be a phishing attempt.
Criminals are always sending out bogus communications, and this holiday season is no different. If you get one of these offers, it is probably an attempt at either 1) stealing your information or 2) installing malware on your device. PREVIEWING the message and HOVERING over any links should not cause any problems, but you should avoid opening any attachments on the email, clicking on any links contained within the message, replying to the message, or doing any of the instructions within the message.
This scam is a little more serious and is one that has been on the rise lately. In this scam, criminals will send out checks through email or regular mail claiming that you won a prize or are receiving a refund for something like an overpayment. In the scenario concocted by the criminal, you receive a check but are required to send back a small “fee” or “tax” as part of the process after claiming your funds.
The unfortunate part of this scam is that most banks don’t verify the validity of checks for up to 3 days, but often make a portion or the full deposit available before then as a convenience to the depositor. People that fall victim to this scam are often tricked by the funds becoming available, and typically send the criminal the requested amount or spend the money before they can find out it is a fake check. There is always the chance that the check is not fake and is actually a stolen check, at which point you will likely not only be on the hook for paying the money back, but you will probably also have some explaining to do to your bank.
This blog is inspired by our friends at Security National Bank (SNB). For more information on these topics, sample scams, how to avoid falling victim to these tactics, and what to do if you’ve already fallen victim, we highly recommend that you check out SNB’s Fraud Protection blog.
Besides just reading the article above, you can reach out to us on our contact page or at infosecurity@utdallas.edu if you need assistance with these types of scams.