The holidays can be a time for giving but they can also be a time when people come out of the woodwork to take advantage of your generosity. You may not want to blowtorch anyone’s head but you will want to keep an eye out for these holiday scams.

That Holiday Feeling

Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, the season surrounds you at every turn. You see houses lined with twinkle lights, sip peppermint-flavored coffee at cafes, and hear jingle bells on street corners.

People are often kinder than at other times of the year too. It is a time for family and friends to get together, a time for charitable giving, a time to show your appreciation for others. At least it should be.

That doesn’t mean there are not people who will try to take advantage of that holiday feeling. Faux charities often pop up asking for money, Go Fund Me pages beg for dollars, etc. People will expect you to give more, sometimes outside of your means.

Keep an Eye Out for Holiday Scams

Those guys in Home Alone, the Wet Bandits, decided it would be okay to take whatever they wanted from the McCallister’s home. But 8-year-old Kevin refused to be bullied. We cheered him on for taking action. Whether it was a blowtorch to the head, a flat iron to the face, or a swinging paint knocking someone to the ground, the Wet Bandits got the McCallister brand of karma.

I should not have to say it but please do not set up traps like that in your home. Unlike the movies, you won’t just give someone a bruise or a bump on the head. You could seriously hurt them.

Not all bad actors steal from you in person. Many come at you online, in texts, or on the phone. Watch for these all too common scams, but know that these are only some of many.

“Charities”

Helping others, isn’t that what the holidays are all about? For scammers, open hearts can mean open wallets. These days anyone can develop a website to promote a charity. These sites can look legitimate and in some cases even be legitimate but that does not mean the money you give will actually go to whatever cause they are promoting. Some scammers will even mimic a known charity to get donations. If you want to make a real difference, you need to know where your money is going and make sure you are not being scammed for personal information that could lead to identity theft.

The Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Allowance recommends at least 65% of your donation go to the cause, not to overhead expenses. You can check the BBB site to see if a charity is on their list, see if it has a positive rating, get reviews, and even see some of the charity’s financial information.

Know what to look for. If you were solicited for a donation, make sure everything looks real. Check for typos in emails or website addresses. Look for suspicious email addresses. Instead of clicking on any links, do a Google search on the charity and go to the charity site directly. If a charity is smaller, you may not know much about how it is run. Look into it at Charity Navigator or Charity Watch, reputable organizations that can let you know whether a charity is the real deal.

Gift Card Scams

Sometimes you just don’t know what to get for someone or you need a last minute gift. Gift cards can be an easy way out but be careful. A cashier could activate a gift card but then hand you back an unactivated or a partially used one. Gift cards on display in public places could have their activation codes and PIN codes read by a magstripe so scammers can use them after you buy them. Likewise, someone could open a gift card, repackage it, and then sell it to you. Let’s not forget there are a lot of knockoff cards out there, especially when you buy online.

To protect yourself, only purchase from a reputable source, do not accept gift cards with faulty packaging, and when buying in person, keep the gift card in your line of sight an eye and ask for a gift card from behind the counter, if possible. This makes it less likely a magstripe reader tampered with it.

Package Delivery Scams

You may get a notification that a package was delivered when it wasn’t or that you missed a package delivery. You may not have even ordered anything, and even if you did, you may get false notifications about tracking a delivery. There are so many tricky ways they can get you.

Do not click links in any emails or texts you receive and do not call back any numbers you get in a voicemail. If you think there is a bonafide package delivery issue, go directly to the site you purchased the item or to the shipping source (i.e., FedEx, UPS, U.S. Postal Service) to find out what’s going on.

Take Care During the Holidays

This does not mean you should not be generous during the holidays. By all means, give to your heart’s content. Just be sure to stop and think before you make any financial decisions this season, even small ones. All it takes is one bad link to get a hold of your credit card number and other personal information. There could be repercussions for that down the road. There are more Wet Bandits out there than you realize.

 

Five Holiday Scams to Avoid. Morgan Stanley. https://www.morganstanley.com/articles/holiday-scams

How to Protect Yourself From Holiday Scams. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/holiday.html

How to Spot and Avoid Gift Card Scams. Avast. https://www.avast.com/c-gift-card-scams

Top tips for avoiding scams at the holidays. Federal Trade Commission. https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2019/12/top-tips-avoiding-scams-holidays