BBB warns of scams seeking to steal your information

JACKSON, Tenn. — Scams are becoming a normalized way for Americans to lose not only their money, but their identity.

In 2023, the AARP shared a study finding that there were fraud incidents reported by Americans totaling to $10 billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Todnetta Trice with the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South shares more.

“All in all what they’re gathering is phishing information, like personal information,” Trice said. “It can get as bad as getting personal information like account numbers, [social] security numbers and things of that sort of nature, which can lead to identity theft and money being stolen out of your account.”

Scams are now commonly phone calls, texts, and even emails. Spam emails will have links attached, asking for you to click the link, which will go to a third party website.

“You’ll get these imposter emails saying, ‘Hey, click this link so we can get things figured out,’ but do not click those links,” Trice said. “[If] it seems suspicious, it probably is. You definitely want to make sure that you’re not downloading any type of attachments from unknown sources.”

Another piece of advice is to Google phone numbers attached to emails to see if the company is legit.

“Go ahead and block that email from your email account. It’s as easy as blocking a phone number on your phone now. Any time you get an email that you don’t like, or it’s spam, you do have the ability to go and report it,” Trice said.

When browsing online at a computer and on your phone, be careful of accepting cookies.

“When you’re accepting the cookies, that you’re accepting pretty much everything that comes with it, and that can involve them having permission to use your personal information, and that can be something that is already saved on your phone, like first and last name, as well as your phone number,” said Trice.

Trice also shares advice for online shoppers who may receive texts from delivery services.

“My consumers out there that does a lot of online shopping and have so many packages that can not keep up, do not click on that link — USPS, UPS, FedEx, all these companies will never send you a text message saying that they tried to attempt and they couldn’t get ahold of you,” Trice said.

The best way to limit the amount of scam calls, texts, and emails is to report.

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