Holiday season is scammer season, says FBI

FBI Denver has issued a warning to residents of Wyoming that it’s a good idea to practice caution while buying items online. Cyber scams affect thousands of people in America each year and scammers are known to take advantage of the holiday season.

Two scams are particularly common at this time of the year: non-delivery or non-payment and phishing.

In a non-delivery scam, a buyer pays for goods or services online, but never receives them. A non-payment scam is the opposite: goods or services are shipped, but the seller is never paid.

According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), criminals entice their victims in many different ways. They may, for example, send emails that advertise hard-to-find items like event tickets or gaming systems, or promote unrealistic discounts and bargains through ads and untrusted websites.

Social media may be used to spread posts that often appear to have been shared by a known friend and offer vouchers, freebies and contests, or to host ads for nonexistent or counterfeit items.

Online surveys may also be used to steal personal information, while criminals have also been known to use legitimate website photos to advertise non-existent pets for sale.

Losing money on a purchase that turns out not to be real is not the only problem, according to IC3.

“Unsuspecting consumers may be giving away personal information and debit or credit card details,” says a recent press release from the department.

“Victims may receive nothing except a compromised identity or fraudulent card charges.”

In the case of pet sale scams, IC3 recommends watching out for red flags such as added shipping or carrier fees, taxes or vaccination costs. Ask to meet the animal and owner via video chat before buying to reduce the chances of being scammed.

In general, the FBI recommends that you verify websites before making a purchase and only buy from official sites that use encryption. The address should begin with https:// and should show an icon of a locked padlock.

Watch out for retailers using a free email service instead of a company email address and don’t be fooled by a flashy website. Pay using a credit card you have dedicated for online purchases and check the statement frequently.

The FBI recommends never saving your payment information in an online account and being wary of sellers who will only accept wire transfers, virtual currency, gift cards or cash, all of which are almost impossible to recover. Do not make purchases using public Wi-Fi and verify the legitimacy of a seller before you purchase, such as by looking at consumer reviews and checking with the Better Business Bureau.

Additional red flags include sellers who post under one name but request you send funds to another name; and sellers who claim to be inside the country but want funds sent to another country.

Avoid clicking links or providing personal or financial information to an unsolicited email and make sure your anti-virus and malware software is up to date and blocks pop-up windows. Never use the same password on multiple accounts.

“As always – if the deal sounds too good to be true, chances are it is a scam,” states the IC3 press release.

According to IC3, non-payment and non-delivery scams have been on the increase over the last five years. In 2020, a total of 108,869 crimes of this nature were reported to the department.

The holiday season is among the busiest times for these scammers. During the 2020 holiday shopping season, IC3 received over 17,000 complaints about the non-delivery of promised goods, which resulted in losses of more than $53 million.

IC3 suspects this number may increase this year due to rumors of merchandise shortages and the ongoing pandemic.

The second most prevalent holiday scam is phishing, according to FBI Denver, in which scammers catch busy consumers off guard by sending them an email that looks like it might be from a brand the consumer frequently buys from or knows. The aim is to get the victim to click on a link or open an attachment, and the purpose is to either have the victim download malicious software or to gather personal information.

Sometimes, the malicious software can retrieve that personal information from the device. Other times, the victim visits a malicious website that asks for information such as date of birth, bank account number and passwords.

FBI Denver recommends that you take your time and don’t immediately click on links or open attachments. Look out for spelling and grammatical errors, which are unlikely to appear in a real email from a big brand, and don’t open any attachments or links if you don’t recognize the sender.

If you hover over the email address with your cursor and view the link, it will show you hidden email addresses and URLs. Be leery of emails that have an “unusual sense of urgency.”

Again, check the URLs of websites that want you to buy from them to see if there is an https:// at the beginning of the address.

“The best course of action is to never click on links, open attachments, or provide your personal information without verifying the reason behind the request or whether it is a legitimate business entity,” says a press release from FBI Denver.

According to IC3, Wyoming is actually low down the list in terms of total victims per state. In 2020, Wyoming came in at number 49 on the list with just 913 victims, compared to California at the top of the list with 69,541 victims.

However, in the same year, victims in Wyoming lost a total of $5,096,704 to scammers. It’s not an insignificant number, and the FBI wants everyone to stay safe as the holidays approach.

If you are the victim of a scam, report to http://www.ic3.gov as quickly as possible. You should also report the activity to the online payment services used for the transaction and contact your financial institution to stop or reverse the transactions – you can ask your financial institution to contact the corresponding institution where the suspicious transfer was sent.