Congressman Seth Moulton Warns Of Summer Scams

Below is information shared by Congressman Seth Moulton’s office:

Summertime on the North Shore means family cookouts, homemade ice cream, summer camp, and outdoor festivals. It’s also peak season for scammers.

Consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud last year. Some common summer scams include holiday scams, employment scams, rental and travel scams, moving scams, social media scams, and ticket scams.

Imposter scams are among the most common — and they can be the toughest to spot. Imposter scammers may try to steal money or personal information from you by impersonating your bank’s fraud department, a government authority, a technical support expert, even your boss, or a relative claiming to be in distress.

Don’t let a scam ruin your summer. Staying vigilant and use the tips below to protect yourself and your loved ones from being scammed.

Spotting a Scam:

  • Scammers pretend to be organizations you already know. They use the names of government agencies and prominent tech and utility companies. Many scammers use company and governmental logos to trick you into thinking it is the real organization asking for money.
  • Scammers try to scare you by saying you are in trouble with the government, you owe money, or someone in your family has an emergency.
  • Scammers want immediate action from you. They might threaten you with arrest or legal action.
  • Scammers will ask you to pay them in a specific way. Whether through cryptocurrency, wiring money, mailing you a fake check, or asking you to put money on a gift card.
  • Online scams via phone, text, and email normally come from contacts you are unfamiliar with. Their number may have different area codes and email addresses may pose as organizations you know but with misspellings and typos.
  • In-person and physical mail scams are typically too good to be true, making promises that seem outlandish and it is unclear if they will be kept.

Protecting Yourself Against Scams:

  • Don’t give any personal information away to organizations you didn’t expect to be contacting you. Safe organizations won’t make you give your social security, credit card number, or any other personal information over the phone, text, or email.
  • Never click on an unexpected link that is texted or emailed to you from an unknown sender. Check for typos, even subtle ones, or strange grammatical errors.
    Block unwanted calls and texts to lessen the number of scammers trying to contact you. You can also put your number on the National Do Not Call Registry. Go to www.donotcall.gov or call (888) 382-1222.
  • Never give money to a person or organization asking you for cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, or a gift card. Never deposit a check and send money back to someone.

Reporting a Scam:

Governmental agencies are here to serve you when these situations arise contact the following to report the scam:

For Massachusetts-specific information on filing a consumer complaint, visit: www.mass.gov/how-to/file-a-consumer-complaint

Stay up to date with the latest scams to look out for on the Federal Trade Commission website here: https://consumer.ftc.gov/scams.

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