Holiday shoppers could see challenging 2021 season
Retail experts say the best thing for holiday shoppers is to start buying early before items are out-of-stock.
The holiday season is, unfortunately, a great time to be a scammer, according to the National Consumers League.
The FBI says thousands of people become a victim of holiday scams every year, and scammers are finding new ways to rob people of their money and personal information. Everything from QR codes, to store-bought gift cards, should be examined with a careful eye as you shop this holiday season.
“Come to find out you just got scammed out of your money, you’re just like, is this happening?” said Desmond Ramey, who experienced a gift card scam earlier in December.
A woman carries shopping bags two days before Christmas on December 22, 2010. (Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The gift card Ramey bought at a store in Bakersfield, California returned an error message when he tried to use it. So he asked the store manager to look at it.
“She pulls off the barcode and underneath is the original barcode, and she goes, well you have been hit by a scam,” Ramey said.
“The fraudsters seem to be one step ahead of the security measures put in place to stop them,” said John Breyault, of the National Consumers League.
How does a gift card scam work? Fraudsters usually place their own barcodes over a real gift card barcode. When the card is activated at a retailer, the money is added to the…
