A letter from Santa Scam
Because scammers don’t take time out for the holidays, and if you don’t know what to expect, you can be their next victim. One of the oldest Christmas-themed scams is the alleged letter from Santa. Now, don’t get scammed by Santa this year!
A Santa Letter Scam
In this ruse, scammers set up bogus websites for parents to allegedly order legitimate-looking letters from Santa for their children. All victims need to share some details about their child and the victims’ credit card info, and the message is (supposedly) as good as mailed. Some sites will even offer to send the letter at no cost, so long as you share some details about your child.
Searching for your information
Unfortunately, anyone following the site’s instructions is prey to the scam. They’ll never see that letter or the money they paid to create and deliver it. Worse, the scammers now have their child’s information and the victim’s credit card details, leading to identity theft. Sometimes, crooks will go after the children’s credit, which will likely go unchecked for years. And when the children are grown, they may find their credit scores destroyed by these scammers over the years, all without their knowledge.
There are legitimate letter-from-Santa sites, but the bogus ones can be difficult to spot.
Look for the following red flags when searching for this kind of service:
- The scammer reaches out to you repeatedly. You may be dealing with a scammer if a company doesn’t stop sending you emails or alerts about its services.
- The site is not secure. As always, check for the lock icon and ‘s’ after ‘HTTP’ in the URL; both indicate a secure site.
- You need to answer too many questions. There’s no need for a letter-from-Santa service to know your child’s exact date of birth, and certainly not their Social Security number.
- You can’t find positive online reviews about the company. If an online search for the company turns up empty, and of course, if it turns up any reports of past scams, opt out.
If you recognize a company as a scam, be sure not to click on any links embedded in its emails. Flag their emails as spam, and delete every email, message and alert it sends. And alert the BBB, do not let anyone else fall victim!
Santa is supposed to be a positive part of the holidays. Make sure you follow these tips and do not get scammed by Santa this season. Elevate Credit Union wishes you a happy holiday season, scam-free. Have you been a target of a letter-from-Santa scam? Please share your experience with us in the comments.
