By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square
Anyone can become a scam victim, said Captain Anthony O’Hara, the intelligence director of the Pennsylvania State Police.
He knows because it happened to him during the last holiday season.
It happened after he woke up after his Christmas nap and saw an email that he thought was from Apple.
“It looked like a legitimate bill that I wasn’t familiar with, and I clicked through it,” O’Hara said. “I made that mistake of clicking through an email, and in that moment, in a hurry, I gave up my ID and my password. Moments after, I realized what I had just done. I had fallen for the scam.”
O’Hara and Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking Robin Weissmann warned Pennsylvanians about the prevalence of scams during the holiday season.
Three predominant ruses trick people out of their money, they said. Some fraudsters will set up fake charities. Weissmann cautioned consumers to make sure any charity is legitimate.
“You can verify state registered charities by visiting the Pennsylvania Department of State website,” Weissmann said. “We encourage them to look at them.”
More shoppers are avoiding crowded stores and ordering holiday gifts online. E-commerce accounts for about 15 percent of all retail sales, Weissman said. Scammers will set up phony websites and consumers may not even know they are not on a retailer’s site, she said.
“Nefarious actors will purchase various website URLs that look very similar to a legitimate business,” Weissmann said. “They will build a landing page that looks very similar to the real site and attempt to extract login credentials or financial data. Once you submit that information, [your credentials] can be used for activities such as making fraudulent purchases or extracting bank account or credit card information.”
Some consumers also lose money making peer-to-peer transactions, she said.
Weissmann urged consumers to verify that the website they are using is the right one and to be cautious when clicking on hyperlinks.
“We recommend utilizing bookmarks for your favorite websites and making sure any emails that you receive are in fact from a correct email address,” she said.
Weissman also warned of a Social Security scam that typically involves a telephone call from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration. They claim to be notifying the person that they are under investigation for suspicious activity. They are told to do exactly as instructed or be arrested or fined.
Consumers can avoid scams in several ways. First, don’t answer phone calls if you don’t recognize the number. Be cautious on websites, because even some sites that may say they are the “official” site can be spoofed.
Tony Wolchasty encouraged consumers to join the Fraud Watch Network, which is sponsored by AARP. Membership in AARP is not required, and consumers can get information about how to protect themselves, he said.
And if you think you are a victim of a scam, don’t be afraid to tell someone or call the police.
“The quicker the response from the police aspect, the better your chances are of recovering some money,” O’Hara said.
