Greg's Corner

Scam Round Up: Black Friday warning and more

By Greg Collier

This week in the Scam Round Up, we’re bringing you a reminder of an old scam, a new twist on a persistent scam, and a warning about this year’s holiday shopping season.

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The grandparent scam is still out there and shows no signs of slowing down. It’s becoming almost as common as the arrest warrant scam, which we’ll get to shortly.

An elderly Florida woman recently lost $16,000 to the grandparent scam. A scammer called her, posing as one of her grandsons, and claimed he needed $50,000 for bail because of a car accident he was in. This scammer hit all the beats, saying he hit a pregnant woman with his car and not to tell anyone else in the family. The victim sent the scammers $16,000, which was all she had in savings. Her family found out when the victim started asking her friends how she could get more money.

If you have an elderly relative, please let them know about this scam. If you receive a call like this, don’t say the grandchild’s name. This lets scammers know they have a potential victim on the phone. Ask the caller a question that only that person would know, to see if they are who they say they are.

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As we have said on multiple occasions, the arrest warrant scam is probably the most common scam in America. It’s at least the most reported one. Not a day goes by where we don’t see a report from some police department or sheriff’s office warning their residents of this scam.

Typically, scammers call their victim posing as police while telling their victims they have an arrest warrant out for them. In most cases, the scammers will say the arrest warrant is for missing jury duty.

More recently, residents of a Chicago suburb started receiving voice mails stating they had arrest warrants. They were then instructed to call a number that did not belong to their local police department.

It’s unknown what happens when the fake police phone number is called, but all arrest warrant scams are designed to scare the victim into making some kind of payment that will make the warrant magically go away.

No law enforcement office or agency will ever call you to demand a payment over the phone. If you receive one of these calls, hang up and call your local police at their non-emergency number.

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With Black Friday being this week, scammers will be out in droves trying to separate you from your money. This year, the Better Business Bureau is saying that the scammers will be more inclined to pose as a delivery company like UPS or FedEx than posing as a retailer like Amazon or Apple.

This means scammers will be sending out texts and emails claiming you missed a delivery, or they need additional information to make the delivery. These messages will contain a link for you to click on. If you click on the link, you could be taken to a phony site that looks like the legitimate one from that delivery service. You’ll then be asked to input your personal information. Sometimes, you’ll be asked for your financial information for a redelivery fee, which isn’t a real thing. The phony website could also inject malware into your device, stealing even more information.

As always, do not click on links in text messages and emails from people you don’t know personally. If you think there’s a problem with your delivery, go to the retailer’s website, and they’ll have the tracking information.