AARP Eye Center
Scammers are criminals. The best way to stop a scam is to spot the red flags!
Crypto Currency ATM Scams
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Cryptocurrency kiosks, also known as crypto ATMs or virtual currency kiosks, are used to convert dollars into digital currency. These machines may look like regular ATMs, but criminals can also use them as a fast, easy and hard-to-trace way to get access to victims’ cash. Crypto ATMs make it easy for scammers to convince victims to deposit thousands of dollars to “solve” urgent financial problems, making it more difficult to recover stolen funds.
In many cases, these scams begin with a message from someone claiming to be a trusted source, directing you to withdraw cash from your financial institution and head to a nearby crypto ATM. Once the cash is fed into the crypto ATM, it's converted to cryptocurrency and ultimately lands in the criminal’s wallet.
Criminals are finding great success in convincing targets to use crypto ATMs because they aren’t well understood. If you receive an unexpected communication from someone who claims to represent a business you engage with, sign into your account via an app or website or call using a number on a paper statement, rather than following their direction on responding by a given link or phone number. If someone ever contacts and directs you to a crypto ATM to solve an emergency, it’s a scam.
Natural Disaster Scams
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It’s an important reminder heading into the summer months, that April through August are the most common months for natural disasters to occur throughout the US. Right now is the best time to learn about the types of perpetrators who might strike as you’re still picking up the pieces after one of these disasters.
Following extreme weather events, dubious contractors and outright scammers descend on affected communities, offering quick, cheap fixes. They canvas neighborhoods in search of “work” that they may or may not even attempt to do—often, specifically targeting older homeowners.
Before any disaster, it’s a good idea to call your insurance company to clarify your coverage and ask any questions you might have. Investigate before hiring a contractor and check the vehicle of any contractor who arrives unsolicited for a business name, phone number, and their state contractor license number. You can also look businesses up on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and other consumer review sites to double check.
Not everyone who shows up after a storm is there to help you rebuild. Take your time, ask questions, and know that you are not alone.
Customer Service Scams
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Most of us appreciate when we can talk to a real person about an issue or concern with a company, and what better way to find customer service than to search for it online? Criminals are well aware of this tendency and take advantage of it. Customer service scams often involve criminals setting up fake web pages and phone numbers to impersonate legitimate busineses. They buy online ads to appear high up in a search list, and answer incoming calls pretending to be friendly customer service agents of a particular company. Perpetrators also send phony text and email messages and post on social media impersonating customer service for major brands.
The next time you are looking for an organization’s customer service number, log into your account if you have one or find it on a prior statement. If you go online to find it, be sure to type the company web address directly into your browser rather than doing a search.
If you've been targeted by a customer service scam, report it to the company involved through contact information on the company’s official website. If you are a victim, report to local police or the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.gov).
Pause. Reflect. Protect
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Keeping up with the latest scams and all the red flags that warn us of each one is exhausting. Scams constantly evolve, and each comes with its own red flags to remember. But some warning signs apply to a wide range of scams, and recognizing them can help you to react safely.
Most scams come at us with three elements: unexpected contact, a surge of emotion, and a sense of urgency. Together, these elements form a “trigger” for a safe response. Many of us learned as children that if our clothing caught fire (the trigger), our response should be to “stop, drop, and roll.” The safe response for scams is to take an “active pause.” The active pause is a deliberate act that allows us to move away from an emotional response and engage with logic.
With the active pause, we can reflect on what we might know about the situation confronting us. Is this something I have heard about before? Does the scenario make sense? Is there some way I can verify the communication? In the end, the active pause can help us recognize the scam and protect our money and sensitive information.
Know the triggers, know the response: Pause. Reflect. Protect.
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Be a fraud fighter! If you can spot a scam, you can stop a scam.
Report scams to local law enforcement. For help from AARP, call 877-908-3360 or visit the AARP Fraud Watch Network at www.aarp.org/fraudwatchnetwork
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