With skimmers and scammers popping up in the headlines lately, we want to share some tips for protecting yourself from these swindlers.
Card skimmers are mostly found on ATMs or gas station pumps but, as an incident at Dollar General shows, it is possible to find them at retail stores, too.
Identifying a skimmer can be done pretty easily. Look for any pieces or parts on/around a card reader that are bulging or skewed, or any indication the machinery has been tampered with. Give the card reading part a little tug or wiggle — if anything moves or pops off, that might be a skimmer. When possible, look into the card reader to see if there’s something already inserted. On a keypad, look for any button covers that don’t correspond to the button’s function or are off-center. If the buttons are especially hard to press (or have to be pressed extra hard), there might be a PIN recorder over the keypad. (Tap payment is considered safer, but it’s not immune to skimmers either.)
Scammers, on the other hand, are far more common and can be harder to spot. They come in many variations — phone calls, texts, emails, direct messages, even social media posts. We can’t warn you about every possible scam, but here are some things to keep in mind:
- Anything that asks for payments in gift cards is a scam. No legitimate organization will accept gift cards as a valid payment — not for any service, fee, fine or even bail.
- The IRS will never call you. Ever.
- If the person (or robot) offers money or rewards, it’s probably a scam. If they ask for credit card or banking information to “pay for shipping” or “for direct deposit,” it’s a scam.
- If a person calls and claims to be from a real business (cable provider, utility, bank, internet provider, even the local sheriff or doctor’s office), tell them you’ll call back on the main line. If the person insists you call back a number they give you or called from, it’s probably a scam. If you aren’t sure, hang up and call the business’s publicly listed phone number. Note: Scammers can imitate or “spoof” real phone numbers, but if you call the real phone number, it won’t connect to the scammer.
- Be wary of any text that asks you for personal information, tells you you’ve won something, says your package has been delivered/delayed when you haven’t ordered anything, asks to verify a payment you haven’t made or claims to be a “wrong number” but wants to be your friend. If there are any links in these messages, do not click them.
- If you ever get an email that sounds sketchy but looks like it comes from a real person or business, double check the email address. Look for any extra numbers (companyX1 instead of companyX) or punctuation (company.X), or for different domains (@yahoo.com instead of @companyX.com). Like with phone numbers and call ID, scammers can also imitate a real email address in the email’s preview. It might say “CompanyX@companyX.com,” but if you click on the email address, you may see the sender’s real email is “johndoeXYZ@gmail.com.” When in doubt, don’t click on any links.
We’d like to forewarn the community: Someone received a call with “The Dominion Post Opinion” on the caller ID, and the person on the line claimed to be the opinion editor and started asking political polling questions. This is a scam. We are not conducting any surveys at this time. In general, the opinion department will only call you to confirm a letter to the editor.
