Jessica Quindlen: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Sound Cents Podcast. I'm Jessica Quindlen. Happy holidays, everyone. This episode, I wanted to focus on holiday scams. Unfortunately, this very joyous time of year often comes with an increase in scammers. I know just today I have received two text messages around packages. So, I wanted to bring our lovely fraud experts. I have Lashae Woodard, our VP of Financial Crimes. Hello, Lashae.
Lashae Woodard: Hello.
Jessica Quindlen: And Lisa Zurcher, our Manager of Financial Crimes. Hello, Lisa.
Lisa Zurcher: Hello. Happy holidays.
Jessica Quindlen: Thank you so much. All right. As I said, the holiday season brings an increase in scams and fraudulent activity. Can you tell us why they're active this time of year?
Lisa Zurcher: Yes, this is probably fraudsters and scammers’ favorite time of year because there's just so much going on during this time of year. We've got a lot of generosity and willingness for people to spend a lot of money.
They're buying gift cards for their family. They're out and about. I know we just had Amazon Prime Days, but they're out buying lots of things online. Retailers are [00:01:00] having sales every single week, trying to ramp up for the holiday season. So, with that comes the opportunity for fraud and scams.
The holiday rush sometimes makes people vulnerable. We’re not paying attention to the details. You've got so many packages coming from Amazon, or you've got so many packages coming from different retailers that you might click a link from USPS that's maybe not really from them. Or from UPS or a different delivery service that may look legitimate that's really not and now you've compromised your information. Many people expect those packages and those deals, and the scammers are really aware of what's going on out there. They are staying just up to date with everything just like the rest of the population.
Jessica Quindlen: Right. It makes sense. So, what are some common holiday scams that people should be aware of?
Lashae Woodard: For a lot of things, you'll shop online because it's so much easier to shop in the convenience of your own home as opposed to running around on the streets. So, you just have to be careful when ads pop up or [00:02:00] if you get an email or something.
We always say if it's too good to be true, it's generally too good to be true. A lot of times they'll set up a fake website so you will search the name of a company you're looking for and you might think that's their website, but that’s not necessarily so. Sponsored website does not guarantee that that's the website you're looking for.
Make sure you're on the right page of the merchant or the product that you're looking for. They'll set up products, have you click, they'll take your payment, so you're not even aware it's a scam. Next thing you know, you're not going to get the product because you weren't really on the website, and now they have your card information.
You just need to be careful of anything that gets sent to you via text or via email. Be careful what you click on. I had shared earlier, I got an email from a bank that I don't bank with asking me about a transaction. Don't click on any link that you're not familiar with. It might appear to be valid, but chances [00:03:00] are it could be malware that you're going to then put on your device.
Gift card scams are another thing we see all the time. They'll scam you and ask for payments in the form of a gift card. And then when you purchase them, they'll ask you to either send a picture of the gift card. or to send them a card number. What they do on their side is they wipe that information off the card. So, if you put a hundred bucks on it, they just pull that money off. Now you're just stuck with the gift cards with no money. And it's not something you can dispute with the merchant as it was sold in good faith.
Charity scams are really popular too. You know, it's the holiday times, we're all feeling very happy to spend time with family, but some of us are very aware that there may be people not as fortunate as we are. And it's the best time of the year that people look to donate to charities. They like to take advantage of people when they're feeling generous and [00:04:00] donate to my cause. You may think you're donating to this cause you read about online and it's not truly that cause. They like to capitalize on current events, so help donate to this cause or that cause when in the end you're just donating to the scammer.
Another thing to be aware of, like Lisa stated, people are expecting packages. Amazon's dropping off packages everywhere. You need to be aware that someone could be following your delivery person and as they're dropping them off, they should pick them up as well. There are delivery lockers, some stores you can do a pickup.
If it's expensive enough, maybe you can require a signature. That way they guarantee someone's at home. If you're at home and a package comes, I'd make sure you grab that, as opposed to waiting until later in the day. This decreases the chances of someone coming by shopping from your porch.
Jessica Quindlen: Right. And I think sometimes it's hard around the holidays because we all want convenience, right? We're still working, [00:05:00] life's still continuing on. But at the same time, even though maybe going to a delivery locker or requiring a signature is extra work, it's a lot better than not having $300 of toys that you purchased because someone stole them.
All of that was great. Thank you, Lashae. Now that we sort of know everything that's going to come at us from all angles, what can our listeners do to protect themselves from falling victim to these different scams?
Lisa Zurcher: One thing is just stay informed. Be aware of the latest scams and fraud schemes. Follow updates from reliable sources like Ent Credit Union or any government agencies. If you go to Ent.com, even just in the search bar, type in fraud or scam and you'll get a list of articles, educational resources just to stay up to date on everything.
Shop safely, only use reputable websites and retailers for online shopping. Make sure in the URL that you see the HTTPS. S is for secure, so make sure that that's there. If you're a little bit leery about a link that you've gotten in [00:06:00] an email, do a Google search to check that. Sometimes you have to be careful with that too, though double check and make sure it's not just the first thing that you're clicking on and it's the actual website because sometimes fraudsters can pay website browsers to get their link above the actual legitimate link.
Like LaShae was saying, be aware of emails and texts, making sure that you know what you're clicking on or downloading isn't infecting any of your devices with malware, any kind of virus.
Verify the charities that you're donating to research them, make sure they're legitimate. Look for reviews. I know that's one thing I've gotten in the habit of is looking at reviews for everything. What do other people have to say? How many reviews are there out there? That kind of thing.
Making sure you're using secure payment methods. So whenever possible, use credit cards for online purchases. They do offer better fraud protection than a debit card and you're insulating yourself a little bit, right? You're not using all the money that's in your checking [00:07:00] account. You have that insulation with a credit card.
Monitor your accounts. We recommend doing that on a yearly basis, not just during the holidays, but a regular review of your bank and credit card statements just for any suspicious transactions, utilizing your online banking, the apps, anything that gives you an instant access to look at things, set up alerts.
I know for me personally, for any credit card or debit card I have, if I have any transaction over one penny, I get an alert or an email or text message to let me know that something's been charged or something's going on with my card so I can be right on top of it.
And then protecting your packages considering installing security cameras. Ring doorbell cameras are great. With as many people that have Ring doorbell cameras, I'm surprised anybody does porch pirate stuff anymore. Because they're all on video. But definitely make sure you've got that. Using the package delivery lockers is really great where you can just go pick it up or even do store pick up where they come, and they'll deliver it to your car for you.
[00:08:00] And then you can also request the delivery notifications from the carrier. Just make sure that those are the legitimate notifications coming from UPS or FedEx or, or Amazon before clicking the links.
Jessica Quindlen: That's fantastic, thank you. Anything else to add around holiday scams and fraud?
Lashae Woodard: Like Lisa said, you know, we talk about scams and frauds, we're always thinking bad guys.
But there also could be a merchant who's not the best merchant. Like Lisa said, look at a review. It may be a legitimate business, but the product that you get may not be what they actually have promised. So read reviews. How long has that product been out there? What are people saying? I always like to read the good reviews to see exactly why they're saying good things. I also look at the bad reviews. So, do your homework. It saves you in the end.
Jessica Quindlen: Absolutely. I love that. Well, that brings us to the end of our show. Lisa, LaShae, thanks so much for being here. It was great to have you.
Lisa Zurcher: Happy Holidays. Thank you very much.
Jessica Quindlen: Yes, Happy Holidays. Thank you for listening to Sound Cents from Ent Credit Union. Be sure to follow our podcast as well as rate and review us. I'm Jessica Quindlen. I will see you next week. Same time, same place.
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