Scam Tip

My email being hacked reminded me how much we are all under attack from crooks. Got a phone call this week from a guy saying he was from a certain radio station and wanted to tell me about a contest the station was having. This struck me as odd that a radio station would be making outgoing calls. I said to him that I don't listen to the station so I would never win the contest. I think that took him by surprise so he must not have been such a good scammer, although I am convinced now it was a scam. He mumbled something like "fair enough" and I hung up.

Just saw a segment on tv about holiday scams, and I want to pass along one tip. They were the usual scams -- fake charities and that sort of thing. But the expert said do NOT buy gift cards on open racks in stores. You know, when you take the card off the rack and then get it activated when you pay. Of course, I've done that before, but here's what could go wrong.

This guy said that crooks will come in, copy down the numbers of the gift card, wait for them to be purchased and activated (and supposedly that's an easy thing to check on line) and then they spend the value of the card. By the time you give the gift card to someone, it could have $0 left on it.

So what you're supposed to do is only buy a gift card if it's been behind the counter, better yet in a locked case behind the counter. That will reduce your chances of this happening to your card.

Makes sense to me; however I remain cynical that the crooks are always one step ahead of honest people.