Knowing what scams are out there, keeps you aware of what to be on the lookout for. When it comes to social media and making online purchases, Monmouth Police Department Investigator Josh Kramer offers this advice:
“Whether they be the Marketplace scams or you are Googling an item, we will use a Yeti Tumbler, for example, and you see they want to sell twelve of them for $2.00 a piece, you need to really look at if that is actually a company or if it is just somebody that has literally bought an ad on Google and is scamming people for that price. I guarantee that you are probably not going to get that item for that price, it is just not out there. If it is too good to be true, it is not true. The pictures and trying to get a good deal, once again, you need to verify and unfortunately our younger population is more vulnerable, and our older population is more vulnerable.”
Investigator Kramer shares that in 2024, the Federal Trade Commission reported that $12.5 billion was lost to scams, a 20 to 25 percent increase from the year before.
