I don’t know if it’s the economy and so many people are hoping for a miracle, but does it seem to you that there are more scams and scammers than ever?
I read an article today about a scam called the “Fake Grandkid”. It seems to be a random phone call from Montreal that starts out with, “Hi, grandma (or grandpa), I’m in trouble but don’t tell mom and dad.” Obviously, if you’re like me and don’t have grandkids you’d probably tell them they have the wrong number and go about your business. Unfortunately, if you’re a grandparent and have teenaged or older grandkids, you can be convinced that your granddaughter or grandson is in Canada and needs you to wire money to help with an accident or other tragedy. In a couple incidences, the employees at Walmart have warned seniors of this scam when they go there to wire the money. Sometimes though, it doesn’t matter what anyone else says.
And before this, there was the Canadian lottery (you won 50 million but you need to send a check for $5,000.00 to pay the taxes) or the email from your very special friend in Nigeria that wants to give you 40 billion dollars just…because. I love the ones from a the FBI that are riddled with typos and mis-spelled words. Believe me when I say that neither the FBI, King of Nigeria, or President of Paraguay is going to email you (or me) about a lot of newly found money. Especially if the email starts with “Dear Friend”.
Here are some things to keep in mind when considering whether something is a scam:
1. It seems simple, but if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you’ve won a lottery you’ve never played. If someone wants to give you a truckload of money for no reason at all. If you’re being hired to work from home licking a stamp for millions of dollars a day. These are all scams. The only thing that will happen is in the end, you’re guaranteed to have less money than you started with. Sometimes a lot less.
2. If you’re not sure of the legitimacy of an email, use your trusty friend google. All you have to do is enter the name of the person that sent the email, the email address or sometimes even a phrase from the email and enough information will come up to let you know if it’s a scam. Also check snopes.com and go directly to the website of the organization (like fbi.gov) to find out if the email is a fraudulent.
3. Never reply to any odd emails and definitely do not send or give out personal information via email.
4. Ask other people. In the case of the fake grandkids, wouldn’t it be better to call the parents and make sure you’re sending money to a real grandkid, then to take the chance on a secret? Don’t be afraid to ask questions either. Many grandparents were so embarassed that they didn’t know which grandkid they were speaking to that they didn’t even ask.
5. If you are a victim of fraud or a scam, report it. A lot of people are so ashamed that they’ve been scammed that they don’t want to tell anyone. The Consumer Fraud Reporting website is full of information on different scams and how to report them.
Of course there have always been and will always be fraudulent people with plans to scam people out of their money. The difference now though is that everything is online and essentially invisible. It has become increasingly difficult to keep up with the daily scams.
Especially now that everyone is shopping online. This holiday season be safe and don’t end up further behind because of fraud.