No matter the time of the year or point of communication, scams are occurring each and every day. Whether it is in an email, text message, or phone call pertaining to winning a prize, paying a bill, missed jury duty, or even romance, the ‘bad actor’ is trying to scare or sweet talk you into gaining personal information or money. Security Savings Bank Vice President Dorothy Ricketts shares red flags to be on the lookout for to identify those scams:
“One of the main ones is that you have to act right away. You aren’t given time to think about the request that you have received and giving the information that has been requested. There is a second piece of that, where you can’t tell anybody. If you are being contacted through inappropriate means, such as getting a text from Social Security saying that you need to contact this phone number to verify your information, you would expect a letter from them. If suddenly something pops up saying there is a problem in your computer, call this number to fix it. If you have an issue on your computer, you are not necessarily going to get a pop up that tells you that. Another piece is how the payment is requested. If you are asked to pay by gift card, that is a scam. You really have to step back and think about the source, how you are being contacted.”
Additionally, Ricketts advises caution when making purchases off advertisements on Facebook as a large amount of fraud is being reported and items are not being received.
