The organization offers advice on how to prevent online scams and safeguard personal information.
Ginny Cain fast followed a link to the company’s website after realizing she had found the ideal fall cap tool online for her home.
” I guess feeling took control and over my sanity, I was like, oh I need that. So I only received it, and the cost didn’t seem to be too much. But as I consider it, I would have had had a more skeptical view of it,” she said.
Cain, however, noticed that more than$ 8, 000 worth of auto parts had been purchased in Southern California using her credit card number a week later when she checked her bank account.
Her credit report decreased, Cain claimed, as she worked to obtain a new credit cards and clear up the charges with her banks, which ultimately took about a month and a half.
” I was enraged. I anticipated my credit report to return, but I felt violated,” Cain said.
In a recent study released by the Better Business Bureau, 6, 590 persons admitted to being victims of identity fraud in 2024. That is an increase of 7.4 % over the prior year.
Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission and the American Anti-Fraud Centre both reported more than 9,400 incidents in 2024, according to the BBB record.
Identity fraud is at the heart of schemes like credit card fraud, according to Alma Galvan, local communications director for the BBB.
” Id theft does not have one common man,” says the author. Regardless of age, anyone can be a target, Galvan said.
According to a BBB press release, fraudsters use stolen information to posses as people or create false identities for different schemes. Scammers occasionally sell the stolen data on the Dark Web, according to the launch.
According to Galvan, employment scams, romance scams, and cryptocurrency scams are the three most prevalent identity theft schemes next month. She claimed that as a result of the epidemic, online schemes became more common.
Galvan claimed that 76 % of scams that the agency’s Scam Tracker identified originated online when victims of those who click on links to dubious websites and provide personal information that can then be hacked.
She cited the case of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who are victimized by providing their personal information in what later turned out to be false work postings.
Galvan claimed that the rise in online scams may be a result of advances in technology, such as AI, which have made it possible to use more powerful tools to deceive websites and people online.
She said she suggests checking if a website is secure before clicking a link to an unfamiliar website and to think twice before doing so. BBB advises individuals to look out for dark colors when browsing online, including:
- Examine site titles carefully
- Be watchful of e-mail connections
- Avoid sites with subpar designs.
- Mysterious text messages urging you to work right away.
- Surprising social media messages from friends
Additionally, BBB suggests the following prevention strategies:
- Don’t give out any personal details.
- Conduct regular credit investigations and review financial statements
- When feasible, use muli-factor identification.
- Use fraud alerts or payment freezes to think about using them
Galvan urges people to report schemes to the and refrain from feeling sorry if they do so.
” We would love to have it occur twice. You want to take good care of yourself first, and then you can instruct people, she said.
Staff Writer Melanie Nguyen can be reached at 707-521-5457 or via email at Melanie. Nguyen@pressdemocrat.com. On X ( Twitter ) @mellybelly119