QUAD CITIES (KWQC) – As many people shop online for Christmas this holiday season, some will inevitably fall victim to scams.
According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, scams cost Americans more than 337 million dollars in 2021. Credit card fraud accounted for another 173 million in losses. Seniors vs Crime in Clinton is warning people to be skeptical about ads on social media.
“There’s a lot of advertising on social media for holiday deals. You should be very wary about that because many of those social media advertising things can take you to a look-a-like or a fake link but it’s not the real thing. It’s a way of harvesting credit card numbers,” said Randy Meier, Director of Seniors vs Crime.
Other scams to be aware of include auction scams, where products are misrepresented online, ‘grandparent scams’, where a scammer pretends to be a family member in need of money, and scams through transfer apps like Venmo, Paypal, and Cash App.
“You have no chance of ever recovering your money if you do that and you just really don’t know who you are dealing with when you make a payment through peer-to-peer,” said Meier.
Solicitations for end-of-year donations, cryptocurrency, and gift cards can also be prone to scams.
“Most scammers rely on people acting quickly. They try to generate excitement or alarm or fear to make us respond quickly. When they tell you that you have to act urgently, or it has to be done without telling people, they want you to do it secretly. Those are huge warning signs that whatever is going on is a scam or fraud,” Meier said.
If you think you have fallen victim to a scam, call Seniors vs. Crime at (563)-242-9211 ext. 4433.
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