According to the 2025 AARP Fraud Watch Network report, about 89 percent of consumers in the United States have experienced or been targeted by at least one form of a scam during this holiday season. While the online shopping, charity, gift cards, delivery, and travel scams are still circulating, one fairly new scam that has become more common are people receiving messages saying their credit cards have been declined. Security Savings Bank Vice President Dorothy Ricketts stresses the importance of going directly to the website and not clicking on a link in a text or email:
“Because of the extra shopping, the extra ordering, the extra use of debit and credit cards, people are busier and because there are so many more purchases on all of the cards, slow down, take a minute to think about the information that is in the message you are reviewing. Don’t click on a link in a text. Don’t click on a link in an email. Go to your sign in for that business that is supposedly sending that message to you. Go to your sign in there, go in and look at it to see if you have any messages, call that company directly rather that responding to an email or text that you may be receiving.”
Additionally, Ricketts informs banks all over the country are dealing with checks getting stolen. If you have questions about setting up online payment options, contact your local bank.
