By Jan Stadtherr
We are in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Rather than shop locally (like we are encouraged to do), many shoppers purchase gifts online. But it’s not only the season for shopping; it’s the most popular time for scammers to steal information like your name, address, credit card, bank account numbers and other pertinent information. They can then buy things with your credit card, access your bank account and more, while you pick up the tab. Tis the season for scammers!
One morning in November, the ringing of the phone awoke me. I answered and a woman with a heavy accent identified herself as an employee of Amazon Customer Service. Her reason for calling was to verify if I had ordered a $1,537.35 Apple laptop computer that was to be delivered to me that day. It would be nice to have a new computer but I said I had not ordered it.
She asked me to verify my name and address but she did not ask for my account number. Under my name she said I had three addresses listed. First, was my home address in Backus, another in Arcadia, Ohio, and the third in New Jersey. She finally concluded that a fraudulent act had taken place and she would need to transfer me to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to handle the case.
Before she transferred me, she gave me her name and employee number which I wrote down. In less than a minute, I was speaking to Andrew Katsaros, the FTC’s interim Inspector General. This high official of the FTC would call me? I don’t think so!
I could tell he was a reading a script that rambled on and on as to what authority the FTC had and how my case would be handled. My case? My mind was running wild! This must be a scam! After 20 minutes on the phone, I told him, “You are a scammer!” There was a moment of silence and that was the opportune time for me to hang up. I called the county sheriff’s office and explained the call and the dispatcher assured me it was a scam.
As a former newspaper reporter, I enjoy doing investigative work. I googled the FTC inspector’s name and discovered that scammers are portraying him in an attempt to get your personal information and your money. I checked the phone’s caller ID and found that the call was from the phone of Craig P. with a 651-area code. The dispatcher told me not to call that number.
Through my online searches, I also discovered that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, threatened to close my Arts Off 84 Facebook page where I placed an ad on Facebook to promote the Art Crawl held Labor Day weekend. The ad had supposedly infringed on Meta’s copyright rules. I ignored several daily emails from Meta as I knew I was not in the wrong. My detective work proved I was right, as were many other people. Emails were (and still are) being sent by scammers portraying the large company. I have not received any other emails.
My husband, Ron, nearly lost $500 due to a scammer. A woman called him to say that the minister of our church wanted him to purchase a $500 Visa card for a needy family as she didn’t have time to do it and knew that Ron would want to help. After he purchased the card he was to call the woman scammer and he would meet her to deliver the gift card. The more he thought about it, he began to think it was a scam. The woman called again asking if he had purchased the Visa card. He said he had but knew he had been scammed. Our minister had not requested the card and Ron was able to spend the $500 himself.
One of the more popular scams is the grandchild scam. A friend fell for the scammer who portrayed her grandson who said he needed money. She thought she was sending money to him rather than a scammer. She was unable to retrieve her loss.
Please, don’t let scammers steal your Christmas! Wishing you a blessed holiday season!
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