Limit the purchases and donations you make by check, which may list your home address or other key data.Be wary of caregivers and suitors, especially if conversations center around finances or financial transactions.Instead, ask for a business card and say your spouse, kids or lawyer will be in touch. Instead, log in to the company’s official website or call them directly to verify. Don’t click links in the body of suspicious emails, especially if they claim to come from your bank, credit card company, real estate agent or title company.Work with financial institutions that use fraud protection to safeguard your credit card and banking information.Don’t give your personal information to unknown third parties.Don’t pay for things you don’t remember ordering.Don’t click links in the body of suspicious emails or text messages, especially if they claim to come from your bank, credit card company, real estate agent or title company.Don’t give a caller verification codes that you receive via text or email.Don’t allow remote access to your computer.Keep these additional tips in mind to protect your identity and your accounts: They may also ask you to accept money on their behalf followed by a request to send those funds to another location. After spending weeks and months winning your trust, they may gain access to your accounts to steal money or your identity information. These predators claim to care deeply for you or your well-being. Or, you receive a call from your electric company threatening to turn off services unless payment is made immediately. You’re approached by a “professional” who claims your home is under threat of foreclosure and offers to pay off your mortgage or taxes if you sign over the deed to the property. You’re asked for a deposit or prepayment and the product never arrives or the work is never completed. You get an unsolicited call or knock at the door offering a product or service for a discounted price (e.g., heart monitor, wheelchair, bathtub bench, home maintenance, tree trimming). After paying, however, you never hear from them again. If you own a timeshare, you may get a call from someone claiming they’re authorized to sell it for you, for a fee. You send the money, but the fictional prize never arrives. ![]() All you need to do is send money to pay for shipping, taxes or some other fee before the prize can be released to you. You get an unsolicited phone call or email saying you’ve won a large prize. These could include companies with similar names to charities you support – but they exist solely to scam donations. That’s because they sell your name, phone number and email to other nonprofit and commercial organizations. You donate to one charity and end up on every charity list. Recent technology can even allow them to successfully imitate your loved one’s voice. But it’s not real: Fraudsters commonly pose as loved ones and, preying on your compassion, claim to need money urgently. Your grandchild or child calls and frantically requests money to pay a kidnapper, a legal bill or an emergency medical expense – and begs you not to tell anyone. The caller can then steal your ID information and can gain access to your accounts. They offer to get rid of it by asking you to log into a website that lets the caller control your computer. Someone calls pretending to be from a major tech company and says that your computer has a virus. With this scam, the email account belonging to you, the service provider or both has been compromised. Red flags include last-minute changes to instructions, a change in the tone or word choice from prior emails, a new sender address and multiple payment requests. Payment scamsīefore paying a contractor for work at your home, investing in a company or purchasing a new property, a fraudster intercepts the email communication and replaces legitimate payment instructions with fraudulent ones. They instruct you to move your funds to a new account they provide to you, coach you on how to answer questions from your financial institution and instruct you not to tell anyone. You receive a call or email from someone claiming to be from a financial institution or federal/state agency (e.g., IRS, Federal Reserve, FBI) saying that your financial accounts are at risk of fraud. ![]() Familiarize yourself with these common swindles.
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