Winter brings much merriment and celebration, but unfortunately comes with a side of increased fraud. Keep your holidays happy by learning how to avoid scams this season in our Q&A with Amanda Balmer, PSECU Financial Crimes Risk Officer.
What scams are most common during the holidays and winter season?
With the uptick in consumer spending during the holiday season, there’s typically an increase in scams related to shopping, such as:
- Smishing. A fraudster will send out text messages in the hopes that you click on a link they’ve included in the body of the message. The link will lead to a fraudulent site that asks for personal or financial information. For example: you get a text that your bank account has been locked and you need to enter your login credentials to regain access, or you receive a message saying you missed an attempted delivery for an online order and need to log in to confirm delivery information.
- Online loans. Scammers know that many people need extra money for holiday shopping. They may offer you a fake loan and ask for your login credentials so they can deposit the funds into your account. They’ll deposit a bad check into the account and then ask you to send them some of the funds back as a “good faith” payment. By the time your financial institution has determined that the check is bad, the scammer will be long gone and your account will have a negative balance.
- Fake stores. Fraudsters on social media will create ads using photos of products from real stores. They’ll advertise the item as being for sale and once you agree to purchase it from them, they’ll either disappear with your personal and payment information and not send you anything or send you a lesser quality version of the product.
Are there any new scams that consumers should be aware of?
While not necessarily “new,” the USPS recently warned about an uptick in “mail fishing.” This is when criminals lower some type of device into the mail slot that allows them to take mail out of the big blue USPS mailboxes. The crooks hope to find checks being sent for the holidays that they can alter to steal money from consumers.
What should consumers watch out for?
Many scams have red flags in common, such as a sense of urgency, typos/grammatical errors in communications, and threats of legal action. Another key piece to remember is that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Each of the scams outlined above has some specific things to look out for, as well.
- Smishing. Look out for links in unexpected text messages or emails. If you’re asked to log into your account, type the trusted web address for the company in the browser yourself rather than clicking on any links.
- Online loans. Never give out your login credentials to obtain a deposit of loan funds. Your credentials should always be kept confidential. Also beware of any “lenders” asking you to make payments by purchasing gift cards (scammers will sometimes have you purchase a gift card and provide the numbers off the back to them). Once you supply the gift card information, the funds typically cannot be recovered.
- Fake stores. Check reviews for sellers and beware of those with bad reviews, unusual payment links, and newly created websites.
What are the best ways people can protect their personal and financial information?
- Only enter your personal information into known websites. Don’t follow links in text messages or emails – type the website into your browser yourself.
- Create unique user IDs and passwords for each account. Make sure your password isn’t something easy to guess - avoid using birthdays or pets’ names, etc.
- Monitor your credit so you can spot fraudulent activity as soon as it occurs. Sign up for our free credit score service so you can be aware of any unexpected changes to your credit.
- Review your financial accounts routinely, even if they’re not ones you use regularly, so you can respond to any unusual charges quickly.
- Keep track of packages you’re expecting and the deliveries. Make sure you receive what you purchase and follow up directly with the seller if there are shipping concerns.
What does PSECU do to protect members’ personal and financial information?
- We provide a free credit score service to eligible members to help them monitor their credit. You can learn more about that service here.
- Our digital banking software monitors each member’s login activity behind the scenes to catch unusual activity.
- If we notice unusual transactions on a member's credit or debit cards, we may contact the member to ensure it was them.
- We offer an array of account alerts to help members stay up to date on account activity.
What should someone do if they’ve fallen victim to fraud?
The action you need to take will depend on what information you’ve provided to a scammer. The first step is to contact your financial institution directly and get their guidance on what steps are needed to secure your account.
Want to learn more about keeping your finances safe? Check out the security section of our blog.