{"id":1360572,"date":"2022-03-06T07:40:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T12:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1360572"},"modified":"2022-03-06T07:55:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T12:55:10","slug":"better-business-bureau-warns-online-fraud-and-text-scams-are-more-prolific-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/better-business-bureau-warns-online-fraud-and-text-scams-are-more-prolific-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Business Bureau Warns Online Fraud and Text Scams Are More Prolific Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbetter-business-bureau-warns-online-fraud-and-text-scams-are-more-prolific-than-ever%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1360572&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/social_media_share\/public\/2020-03\/GettyImages-1192776246.jpg?h=199d8c1f&#038;itok=XWDzMmAC\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Scammers are getting sophisticated and even the most cautious are falling for their deceitful tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Bernas, president and CEO of the Chicago and Northern Illinois Better Business Bureau, said doctors, attorneys and teachers are among those who report being scammed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese scammers know what they are doing,&#8221; Bernas told The Center Square. &#8220;They know how to entice you. They know how to grab your attention. And unfortunately, people fall victim to it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fifty-six percent of people who report scams to the BBB say they were not shopping when they fell victim to an ad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsumers think they are safe because they are on a well-known website like Facebook or Instagram,\u201d Bernas said. \u201cThey run into scammers with fake accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In most cases, consumers think they are buying a brand-name product and they wind up with a fake Chinese-made look-alike. Or they pay for something and the product is never delivered.<\/p>\n<p>Many scammers take advantage of people\u2019s desires for deals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey create a sense of urgency. &#8216;This is too good of a deal to pass up.\u2019 And that\u2019s how the scammers do it,\u201d Bernas said.<\/p>\n<p>Consumers mistakenly believe there is protection because the ad is on Facebook or Instagram but the scammer gets the ad posted before Facebook finds them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like whack-a-mole. One scam pops up, another one comes down, another one pops up. You can\u2019t keep up with it,\u201d Bernas said.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook and Instagram take down thousands of fake accounts every day, but they can\u2019t take the scams down fast enough, according to Bernas. In the past few years, Facebook has taken down one billion accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThink about what that says about the extent of the fraud out there,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of it is around bad products, but it is also around identity left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Text scams have become increasingly prolific, Bernas said. Last year, a BBB employee nearly fell for a text that appeared to be from the Illinois Secretary of State\u2019s office. The text said the person\u2019s driver\u2019s license would expire in a month. \u201cClick here to update your license. Put in your license number,\u201d the text said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo! That\u2019s the scam!\u201d Bernas said.<\/p>\n<p>A similar text scam told the recipient that their bank had noticed unusual activity. &#8220;Click here and put in your account number,&#8221; the text said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt works. A lot of people fall for it,\u201d Bernas said.<\/p>\n<p>If you are tempted to buy something online from a company you have not done business with, do a simple internet search, Bernas advises. Put in the company name and the word \u201cscam\u201d and see what comes up.<\/p>\n<p>He also recommends always making purchases with major credit cards, and never using apps that transfer money directly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou give the money or wire money or give a gift card. Kiss it goodbye,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Most consumers do not report scams, Bernas lamented. He urges people to use the BBB scam tracker at bbb.org to help law enforcement target criminals and shut down fake websites. The Better Business Bureau scam database helps the FBI and Federal Trade Commission find scammers and shut them down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scammers are getting sophisticated and even the most cautious are falling for their deceitful tactics.Steve Bernas, president and CEO of the Chicago and Northern Illinois Better Business Bureau, said doctors,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1360572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1360572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1360572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1360572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1360572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}