In the season of holiday giving, Boston Police are warning shoppers about scammers looking to take what they can from you online. They say that online scams are the most common scams and are on the rise this holiday season.
“I call the bank once a month to check on my account. And they send me alerts, like three years ago I got scammed for 700 bucks,” said Raul Maestre of Boston.
Maestre says that it took him weeks to get that money back, and he does his best to avoid shopping online at all.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The FBI’s Internet crime division estimates that over $12.5 billion was lost last year to Internet scammers. It’s an incredibly common and often Financially frustrating issue. In large part because scammers are getting better at it.
“Even the savviest users can sometimes fall for these tricks,” said Chris Peltz, a Security Strategist at Guidepoint Security. “Scammers are getting better technology making it easier to mimic websites and even those UPS notifications.”
The types of scams that Boston police are warning shoppers about include text and email phishing schemes that ask for you to click a link, or verify your address among others.
“You don’t know what’s real and what’s not real,” said Maestre.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Police are also encouraging anyone who thinks they may have fallen victim to a scam to report it to local and federal authorities.
“These things happen all the time. It’s important that the authorities know and your financial institutions know,” said Peltz.
Peltz strongly recommends regularly checking your credit card statements to make sure you recognize all the charges and dispute anything that doesn’t seem right.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
