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Holiday Scams- Protect You and Your Family
The holidays can be a wonderful time of year; visiting family, enjoying great food, giving and receiving presents. However, this time of year can also be a very stressful time for people. And when you are under stress, you are not always thinking clearly and you can become vulnerable. Vulnerable to thieves who are looking to take advantage of you.
As you are working hard to get everything done for the holiday, crooks, thieves, scam artists are working even harder to come up with ideas to pull at your heartstrings and come up with ideas to get your money and personal information.
The following are some common scams / crimes that occur throughout the year, but increase during the holidays:
- Distract and Grab: When in shopping malls, restaurants or other venues, watch your bags. Thieves will steal your items with a technique commonly called the "Distract and Grab". These thieves work in teams. How it works is that one of the criminals will distract your attention by causing a commotion or dropping items such as money in one area and as your attention is brought to that area, the other criminal in the team will steal items that are nearby to you.
- The Internet: Be aware of where you are shopping online for the holidays. Be sure that you are shopping from a well-known company and that the website you are purchasing items from is the "real" website for the company. You will be amazed at how criminals will develop fake websites that will look practically identical to the real website. Take a few moments to research the website so that you don't end up giving your credit card information and other personal information to a criminal.
- Offers Too Good to Be True: Be weary of credit card offers that you will be offered during the holidays. When presented with an offer of deferring payments until after the 1st of the year or a longer period of time, it might sound like a great deal due to your need to buy gifts using a credit card. However, please remember that you will either need to pay now, or will pay for it later. Be aware that certain credit card companies may offer you to defer payments, but most will accrue interest during the time you are not paying, therefore you probably will not be saving anything and actually might be paying more in the long-run.
- Telemarketing Scams: Be cautious of people calling you on the phone and asking for money for a charity and requesting your credit card information. Ask a lot of questions. I recommend that you get a phone number to call them back and determine that the charity is legitimate. I also recommend that you request information in writing and have them send it to you.
Although there is a lot to think about, in regards to the types of scams / crimes that can happen to you, there are some basic things you can do to reduce your chances in becoming a victim. First, never take things at face value. Take some time to do your homework to make sure you are being given accurate information. Second, Put together a spending plan for the holidays. Don't go overboard and don't buy on emotion. Third, Do things on your time table. Slow down. When you are doing things at your comfortable pace, you are less likely to become a victim of a thief.
Friends: Remember what the holidays are all about. It's not about spending lots of money or having a house that is decorated perfectly. Understand that the true holiday spirit is about spending time with the people you love.
"Love your life and live it to the fullest. Just do it with YOUR EYES WIDE OPEN. Know that I am keeping my eye out for you!" - Cynthia
Cynthia Bazin is a licensed Private Investigator for the State of Nevada and is the owner of The Bazin Group, LLC. Please contact Cynthia for all of your Investigation and Security needs. She will ensure that your business is protected; that you are taking the proactive measures to reduce risk and liability within your organization.
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