CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As confusion surrounds COVID-19, many scammers are trying to take advantage of you, posing as government employees.
Katie Galan of the Better Business Bureau joins us to provide more information and answer some of our questions.
KRIS – What are folks experiencing when it comes to scams during these tough times?
Galan – “The messages that people are receiving is that tests are mandatory and we can expedite your test results if you send us x amount of dollars or whatever the fee was."
KRIS – We’ve seen a decrease nationally when it comes to imposter scams, however Texas has seen an increase. How are Texans being targeted?
Galan - "Some of the scams we are seeing revolve around the IRS - scams like the stimulus payments. We can expedite your money. Social security scams are huge. That is something we see at least weekly with our BBB. Social security Ss scams is when someone is contacted by someone who says they are with the SS commission and they say there is fraudulent activity on their SS number and if you call us back and verify we'll make sure that there is no legal action that can be taken against you. What this is is a phishing scam. They’re trying to get you to call back to verify your ss # in reality all they did was walk away with your SS#."
KRIS – How can consumers recognize they're being scammed?
Galan - "Something that the BBB likes to remind people of often is that no government agency is going to contact you via phone text or email. If they need to get in contact you for any reason they will contact you through regular snail mail. They will contact you through the U.S. Postal Service which will be the only correspondence from them."
Remember, if you feel you’re being scammed, be sure to report it to the BBB scam tracker, the Internet Crime Complaint Center or the FTC.
