ARKANSAS, USA — With the holiday season upon us, scammers are prepared to take advantage of your kind holiday spirit.
"No one is safe. No matter who you are or where you work" said Kirkham IT-Fort Smith Chief Marketing Officer Kindsey Haynes.
"Unfortunately, around the holidays, charity scams are going to be going around," said Shelbi Felblinger, community outreach coordinator with the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB reports 40% of donations are made within the last few months of the year.
"Arkansans are by in large generous people so when the holidays come around, scammers know that," FBI Little Rock Public Affairs Officer, Connor Hagan said.
Hagan says the FBI in Little Rock reports an uptick in social media scams.
One of these scams involves a scammer asking for donations to fake charities, or to someone who allegedly fell on hard times.
"It really tugs on the heartstrings," Hagan said. However, he adds that you should not give in to your emotions. Instead, he suggests researching to make sure the post is legit.
Other scams that are becoming popular are missing children and missing pet posts.
"They try to lure you in, they're designed to trick you into giving information that criminals shouldn't have access to," said Hagan.
In late November, the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office made a post about the scams. Saying in part "Once hundreds of you have shared the post, the scammer will go back and edit the original post, changing the picture to something else and filling it full of their phishing links."
"When you click on some of the links or click on some of the buttons on that site, it actually downloads malware on your device," Hagan said.
Haynes says this could put your personal information and device at risk. "It can completely lock up your device, making it unusable."
"They [scammers] can track every key that is being typed into your computer."
In order to avoid these scams, the FBI gives this advice. "Never give personal information or money to someone you don't know," said Hagan. "Period."
It's also important to be safe while online shopping. Scammers sometimes set up fake sites that look like real businesses to steal your information or convince you to download malicious software.
To avoid one of these scams, experts suggest you should double-check the URL of whatever store page you’re shopping from to make sure it lines up with the company’s real URL, which you can confirm with a Google search. If the logo looks a little off or if there are typos on the web pages, those are signs that the site might not be the company’s real website.
Sometimes, scammers try to use enormous sales and bargains to lure you to a knockoff website. These kinds of websites often have the same goals and are likely to send you counterfeit products or nothing at all.
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