Identity theft scammers are, above all, opportunistic. With Halloween on the horizon, a Halloween scam was sure to be close by. Believe it or not, Halloween is the second most consumer driven holiday, nipping on the heels of Christmas in terms of how much money is spent each year. Experts say real nightmare scams can occur if shoppers aren’t careful.
The focus of these scams are the pop-up Halloween online stores, the here today, gone tomorrow costumers that show up on the Internet each October.
Local authorities receive countless complaints each year regarding these fly-by-night operations, committing to sending you your costume overnight. The majority of the complaints center on websites not delivering merchandise in a timely manner, if at all. The storefront operations most cited complaints were of the poor quality of merchandise and the difficulty of obtaining refunds.
The best defense is to keep your guard up. If it seems too good to be true, it likely is.
Not to mention, at HV Shred we are big proponents of “Think Local First”; please consider doing your shopping up close and personal with local mom and pops in your neighborhood. You’ll have much safer experience and likely feel good about the purchase as well since it will be supporting your local economy.
For more on identity theft best practices, please visit www.hvshred.com