Greg's Corner

This scam takes advantage of Prime Day purchases!

As we mentioned yesterday, Amazon just had its annual Prime Day sale. If you decided to take advantage of the deals to be had online you should be aware of a particular scam that looks to take advantage of all the orders made on Prime Day. It’s called brushing and some retailers will send you a product of their’s unsolicited and at no charge to you. They’re looking for favorable online reviews and even if sent to you free of charge, the vendor can consider you a ‘verified purchase’ on Amazon. The main problem with brushing scams is that someone may have purchased these items on yours on someone else’s stolen account.

In other scam news, reports are coming out of Northern California about a parking lot scam designed to pressure you into giving a stranger money. Several residents have complained about a scam where someone walks behind your car in a parking lot as you try to pull out. The scammer will drop their phone then act like it’s broken, or more than likely they’ll have dropped an already broken phone. They’ll then try to claim it was your fault and try to get you to give them money for their phone’s insurance deductible. If this scam happens to you, it’s recommended that you call the police.

While this next scam happens all year round with places like Disney World, it picks up in the summer months due to other regional theme parks being open for the season. If you see a post on social media promising you free tickets to a theme park or other attraction it is more than likely a scam. This happened recently in the Sandusky, Ohio area where the popular Cedar Point theme park is. This scam is intended to get either your personal or financial information which the scammers will say is necessary in order to get the tickets. They could even ask for a processing fee. In the end, the scammers end up with your information and possibly your money and you’re left with nothing.