LOS ANGELES -- The text arrived midday, saying a delivery to me was on hold. To fix the problem, all I had to do was click on a web link and enter my ZIP Code.
"Have a great day from the USPS team!" the text said.
The awkwardly worded message (with bad punctuation and an international phone number) was clearly not from the Postal Service. And if I can hazard a wild guess, I don't think the senders really wanted me to have a great day.
They wanted to rip me off and, so, a word to the wise this holiday season: Watch your wallet.
Fraud During Holiday Season
Fraud is a year-round, multibillion-dollar international enterprise. But for thieves, the season of joy is a wide-open window of opportunity, as AARP warned Nov. 18:
"With scammers looking to take advantage of consumers from all angles, new AARP survey research reveals that people need to be vigilant this holiday season as they buy gifts, book their travel arrangements, and donate to charities."
Sophisticated Scams
Many of the scams are run by sophisticated international syndicates, said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention at AARP's Fraud Watch Network. Those crooks are working every channel, fishing for victims by email, phone calls, texts, fliers and regular mail. Unwitting people are forking over money via gift cards, cryptocurrency, credit cards, cash and wire transfers. Losses often are virtually impossible to recover because the money is on foreign soil before the victims know they've been robbed.
"There's all this paperwork that makes it look legitimate," Stokes said about timeshare scams. "But the crooks are pocketing thousands of dollars while the target is still stuck with the timeshare."
Impact on Older Adults
Recently in a national conference on scams targeting older adults...