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Scam Alert: Protecting Yourself from Holiday Fraud Surge

Scam Alert: Protecting Yourself from Holiday Fraud Surge

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 I’m Scotty, your friendly neighborhood scam hunter, and today we’re diving straight into the freshest cons clogging your feeds and inbox.

Right now, scammers are feasting on holiday chaos. WHYY in Philadelphia reports that in just the first six months of this year, people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware lost hundreds of millions of dollars to fraud, much of it from fake shopping sites that look exactly like the real thing. One shopper thought she was buying charms from the jewelry brand Pandora after a link came from a family member. The site spun, the purchase never finished, but her bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, suddenly saw thousands of dollars in bogus charges. The “store” was a clone, likely spun up with AI.

AARP’s Fraud Watch Network says more than 80% of Americans have run into holiday-related scams online. That includes bogus shopping sites, fake social media ads, and “card declined, try again” tricks that exist solely to harvest your payment details. The Independent in the UK is warning about a surge in smishing, those text-message phishing attacks, plus malicious QR codes slapped on menus, parking meters, and posters that silently redirect you to credential-stealing pages.

And it’s not just anonymous bots. Modern Ghana reports that a notorious romance scammer known as Abu Trica is being extradited to the United States on charges such as conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. His kind of operation uses fake love, fake crises, and very real bank transfers. In Florida, the Daytona Beach News-Journal just covered a Massachusetts man accused of running a Seabreeze High School travel scam, allegedly taking money from students, parents, and teachers for trips that never happened.

Here’s what listeners need to lock in right now. First, never tap the deal in the email or the “your package is delayed” text. Go directly to the retailer’s or shipper’s official site or app yourself. Muddy River News and AARP both highlight fake shipping alerts and porch pirate scams where the text is the real theft, not the missing box. Second, anyone asking you to pay by gift card, crypto, or wire is waving a giant red skull-and-crossbones. The Ohio Department of Commerce and the FBI keep repeating this because it works: legitimate government agencies and utilities do not demand payment in gift cards. Third, use credit cards or trusted digital wallets like Apple Pay, turn on transaction alerts, and do not save card details on random sites.

Slow down, verify the URL, and treat urgency as a warning label, not a to-do list. Scammers weaponize speed; your best defense is pause and check.

Thanks for tuning in, listeners, and don’t forget to subscribe for more scam-proofing with Scotty. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

For more http://www.quietplease.ai

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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