BBB: Don’t fall for gift card scams

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Better Business Bureau is giving us some tips to stay aware of scammers coming for your information in the form of a gift.

Scammers are impersonating service providers and promising “locked-in” rates for TV, internet and phone services — but only if you pay with a gift card.

It sounds like a great deal, but it’s a setup to steal your money.

“Gift cards are gifts and there’s no way you can get you money back unfortunately. Always remember that Xfinity, Comcast, and AT&T may send you emails and promo’s like that, but they will never use your manpower to give you a call saying ‘Hey, we’re going to give you 50% off if you pay us up front’,” said Toddnetta Trice, communications specialist for the BBB.

Scammers use a sense of urgency and impersonate major providers like AT&T, Spectrum, or Comcast Xfinity to sound credible. Some even mention a free device like a smart TV or smartwatch to make the offer more enticing.

“They give you a really steep discount claiming that ‘Hey, you’ll have your Comcast Xfinity for a year for only a $150. Just go ahead, load it onto a gift card and everything will be taken care of.’ So, a lot of people fall for it especially in the midsouth,” said Trice.

Gift cards are for gifts, not for payments. Anyone asking for gift card payments is trying to scam you. If something seems off check out the BBB Scam Tracker to see if anyone else has reported this as a scam.

“It’s seems like a good way to save money as well as caller ID spoofing. It’s super popular right now so of course if are utilizing that cellphone or house phone, and you have caller ID it may possibly pop up saying it’s actually from comcast and Xfinity. We learn time and time again that scammers are skillful at spoofing their number and making it seem like it is from a legitimate company,” said Trice.

If information as far as your personal identifiable information gets out and you’re not sure on the next steps utilize credit bureau’s like Experian to sign up for updates and alerts.

That means if anyone is trying to get confidential information and it allows you to monitor activity that could be compromising.

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