ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A week away from Christmas, it’s not just porch pirates you have to watch out for when waiting for your packages.
The Better Business Bureau is warning about a text message you may get about a package you didn’t even order — and it could cost you.
Here is how it works:
The scammer who texts you pretends to be a package carrier like they’re with the U.S. Postal Service. Then, you click the link in the text and takes you to a screen where you enter your personal information.
“What they’re really trying to do is get your information and complete a profile basically on your name, address, phone number and everything, to where they can actually scam you in other ways,” said David Swope, the President of the BBB New Mexico.
Swope says a scammer may send you a fake Amazon survey. You fill it out and see you’ve won a prize – but only if you fill in your credit card information for shipping.
Just like that, the scammer has your money and credit card information.
Last year, Americans lost more than $330 million through scam text messages.
“You should never give out that information. They’re not going to ask you that. They got it at the time of the order,” Swope said.
The dangers aren’t just online. Swope added scammers are targeting more and more people in New Mexico stores through gift cards at an alarming rate.
“There’ll be a rack of different gift cards for different merchants and they’ll actually use a scanner and scan and add information into a computer program that actually tracks when money is put on there. And it’s immediately siphoned off,” he said.
Holiday shopping is a rush but take it slow.
“You should know what you’ve purchased and where it should be coming from. And if it looks suspicious, just contact the shipping companies that you’ve ordered things from,” Swope said.
If you do get one of those scam messages, don’t open it. Instead, use the BBB Scam Tracker to report it.
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