I wrote this for our community website, as we have elderly in the area who have been scammed before. I'm not suggesting that they are the only victims but they tend to be more trusting. Feel free to forward this to family and friends if you think it might help someone. As the holidays approach, the number of scammers trying to get your personal information is increasing. Here are a few scams occurring regularly right now. Be very careful giving out credit card or other personal information to anyone who you haven’t verified is legitimate.
The IRS scam — This one appears every year, and still catches victims. Someone claiming they are with the IRS calls you and says you owe taxes. They may even threaten you with legal action if you don’t pay. Then they insist you send a money order or purchase gift cards and read them the card numbers to pay your “fine”. The reality is the IRS will never call you and demand payment over the phone. They send a letter telling you some action is needed, and provide a real phone number so you can call them to verify the information. And no IRS employee will ever expect you to pay taxes or fines with untraceable funds like money orders or gift cards.
The shipping scam — This is typically an email appearing to be sent from UPS or a retailer like Amazon. They claim they can’t deliver a package and offer you a link to clear up any errors in the shipping order. That link asks for information including a credit card. The reality is you just gave your credit card information to a scammer. If you ordered something from a retailer, go back to their website and track your order from there. NEVER click on a link in an email, regardless of how legitimate an email appears to be. Scammers can make emails appear just like the real thing.
The family jail scam — This scam is often referred to as “the Grandparents scam” because they target elderly people. Someone calls claiming to be a family member who is in jail or having legal problems and needs money quickly. They seem to be legitimate because they have personal information about you. They ask you to quickly get them untraceable funds such as a money order or gift cards and send it to them. What you should do — If you ever receive this call ask them for a phone number to call them back. They will normally refuse or give you some bogus reason why you can’t call them. This should be a warning this is a scam, so hang up. If they do give you a phone number, write it down, hang up, then call a family member you know and ask them if this person is in any legal trouble. The answer will probably be no, so ignore the request. If they call again tell them you will be giving their contact information to the police. You won’t hear from them again.
What you can do before you give out information:
Don’t answer the phone! Most everyone has caller ID, so why answer the phone if it’s not a number you recognize? People you know and companies having a legitimate reason to contact you will leave you a message. It’s okay to let the phone ring without answering it.
Monitor your incoming phone calls — If for some reason you don’t have a phone with caller ID and don’t have an answering service supplied by the phone company, buy an answering machine and use it. Many machines have a monitor function which allows you to hear the person calling when they start to leave you a message. If you recognize the person, you can pick up the phone and speak with them. If you don’t recognize the caller, don’t answer the phone.
Look at emails before opening them — If you are using web mail you can often place your mouse cursor over an incoming email and see the address of the sender before you open it. Scammers will try to use email addresses that are similar to the legitimate email address, but there will be differences. Learn to spot them.
Don’t open links in emails — Don’t open email links sent to you. Go to the sender’s web site and figure out what is needed from there.
Be cautious when writing checks and sending them through the mail — Checks contain not only your personal information, but your bank account information as well. Never write a check to a stranger, or someone asking for a cash donation. Don’t leave checks in your mailbox for the postal worker to pick up. People will steal mail from mailboxes with the flag up, hoping to get personal information from you. Put your outgoing mail in a post office mailbox, or wait for the post office delivery person to show up, and hand them your mail directly.
Don’t donate money over the phone — If you do answer a call and it appears to be from a charity or another organization looking for a contribution, don’t give them your credit card over the phone or agree to send them an anonymous money order. You are probably being scammed. Tell them you only donate through their website so you have a tax receipt for the donation. Ask them for their website address; if they refuse, you are being scammed so hang up.
In general, be cautious giving information to people you don’t know, and be very protective of credit card and banking details. It’s your money, and you need to be careful how you share your personal information. Don’t be complacent, and it’s okay to question people if the information they ask for seems suspicious to you. Legitimate companies will never question your motives when you are trying to protect yourself.
