[00:00:00] That was until she checked her bank account, where she says she found two debit card withdrawals.
[00:00:06] One was the price of the sneaker and one was another price, but they came from China.
[00:00:11] Two days later, the fraudsters made two more withdrawals, which she says totaled about $350.
[00:00:17] Lammy fell victim to a scam website, and this holiday season, there will be more.
[00:00:23] This happens to millions of people.
[00:00:25] Bree Fowler at Consumer Reports writes about digital security and scammers.
[00:00:30] So what are their new pitches this time around?
[00:00:33] It's great sales, rock bottom prices, and then, you know, getting people to go to a site that looks just like what you think is the actual site.
[00:00:42] Lammy got most of her money back, but she's still out $80.
[00:00:46] It's me, it's sneakers, I, I, it's okay, I mean, but people, people like who maybe they're buying their kids their Christmas presents, and then they don't get them.
[00:00:54] I mean, that's even more. So it's, it's, it's pretty pathetic.
[00:00:56] And instead of shoes, what showed up in the mail from China? A cheap knockoff Gucci scarf she never asked for.
[00:01:15] There are many people who would tell you Black Friday is a scam. And I'm among them.
[00:01:24] This year, Black Friday deals were appearing in October, when Black Friday is traditionally the day after Thanksgiving.
[00:01:32] The name is said to come from many sources, but the most accepted is that the day after Thanksgiving marked the start of the holiday season.
[00:01:44] The rush of shoppers into department stores made the stores profitable for the first time all year.
[00:01:50] Sales had to be good in December if the store were to have the cash to survive until the next holiday.
[00:02:02] Lots of money is changing hands, and you can bet scammers want as large a share of it as they can get.
[00:02:10] I'm Jim Grinstead, and today we're going to talk about Black Friday scams, how to recognize them,
[00:02:16] and the traps con artists set to bring themselves good cheer.
[00:02:24] Other than stores trying to convince you that you're seeing the best prices of the year,
[00:02:29] what's your greatest exposure during Black Friday?
[00:02:34] It's your credit card.
[00:02:36] These days, they're as good as cash.
[00:02:39] You hand them to a merchant, they swipe it or you pass it over a chip reader, and the sale is made.
[00:02:46] The assumption is that the person holding the card is the person authorized to use it.
[00:02:53] Back in the day, people were required to sign their cards,
[00:02:56] and cashiers checked the signature against the receipt you signed at the register.
[00:03:01] The thing was, cashiers didn't know anything about how to compare signatures,
[00:03:06] and they were required to keep the card if the signatures didn't match.
[00:03:10] If you owned a cart at a mall being run by a teenager,
[00:03:13] would you want them to have that responsibility?
[00:03:16] You wouldn't want to hand that responsibility to a retired bank teller either.
[00:03:21] Banks have tools to check signatures.
[00:03:24] Popcorn carts do not.
[00:03:29] History is demonstrating that more and more of us are using our credit cards online.
[00:03:34] WGAL in Pennsylvania outline great ways to protect your card.
[00:03:39] First, shop from a secure computer with the latest antivirus software using a secure connection.
[00:03:45] Always look for the HTTPS lock symbol in your browser window when you're buying online.
[00:03:50] Avoid using search engines to find products,
[00:03:52] because scammers can position the search results that you see with dangerous links included.
[00:03:57] Instead, search the websites of each individual retailer that you might be interested in.
[00:04:02] Watch out for emails, text messages, pop-up ads in Facebook and Twitter posts promising fantastic savings.
[00:04:09] Clicking on the links in those messages could lead to scams or sites distributing malware.
[00:04:14] And don't open attachments in emails promising fantastic deals.
[00:04:18] Never, ever, ever use a debit card online.
[00:04:21] Credit cards offer you greater protection,
[00:04:23] including the option to file a dispute on a purchase and possibly insure your purchase.
[00:04:27] If you have several credit cards, designate just one of them for your online purchases during the holiday season.
[00:04:34] And finally, consider contacting your credit card company now to set up what's called a virtual credit card.
[00:04:40] A virtual credit card is used for a one-time online purchase.
[00:04:43] If that's stolen, it's useless because your card number is not exposed.
[00:04:47] In addition to your bank, there are also services like Privacy.com that can provide substitute credit card numbers
[00:04:55] with even greater controls on how they are used.
[00:04:59] Out in the wild, there are other threats to your credit card.
[00:05:02] For example, pickpockets.
[00:05:06] Inside Edition set a trap.
[00:05:08] The holidays are here and so are the pickpockets.
[00:05:11] While you're out shopping and taking in all the sites,
[00:05:14] police say pickpocketers are targeting you.
[00:05:17] I think they just reached in and grabbed it super quick.
[00:05:19] Nine days ago, Julie Devine says her cell phone was swiped
[00:05:23] while she was gazing at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
[00:05:26] I think I was taking a picture of the tree and then I put my phone away into my pocket
[00:05:30] just to move my hair out of my face and then went to go grab it again and it wasn't there.
[00:05:34] That's how quick it could happen.
[00:05:35] In the Big Apple, the pickpocket problem has gotten so bad
[00:05:38] that the NYPD has deployed a special task force of plainclothes police
[00:05:44] to try to catch the thieves red-handed.
[00:05:46] Here along the pop-up shops and around the skating rink at bustling Bryant Park in Manhattan,
[00:05:52] cops say a pair of professional pickpocketers have struck 18 times in a three-week period.
[00:05:57] So how serious is the problem?
[00:06:00] We purchased this wallet and slipped an Apple Air tag inside.
[00:06:03] Then an Inside Edition producer stood around the iconic ice rink at 30 Rock
[00:06:08] with the wallet slightly protruding from the zipper pocket of his backpack, just like this.
[00:06:13] He's pressed by the crowds.
[00:06:15] Then this lady takes the bait.
[00:06:18] She snatches it.
[00:06:20] Watch again.
[00:06:21] She sure is quick.
[00:06:22] All right, we just got our wallet stolen.
[00:06:24] Using our Air tag, we followed the pickpocket as she crossed over onto Swanky Fifth Avenue.
[00:06:29] It's somewhere right around here.
[00:06:32] We looked everywhere for it.
[00:06:34] We haven't been able to find it.
[00:06:35] Probably just threw the Air tag out, and I guess it's gone.
[00:06:38] We never did get our wallet back, but the joke's on her because there was a grand total of zero dollars in it.
[00:06:44] Bill Stanton is a former NYPD cop and security consultant.
[00:06:48] Number one rule, put your most valuable things in your front pockets.
[00:06:52] That's where it's hardest to get.
[00:06:54] If you can have secured with a zipper or Velcro, all the better.
[00:06:58] And don't think pickpockets are unaware of things like money belts.
[00:07:02] They can steal those easily with just a little more jostling around you.
[00:07:09] Con artists can also steal your credit card information just by walking by.
[00:07:14] Skimmers can pluck the data from your card and send it off into the air without you even knowing about it.
[00:07:21] If you have an RFID card, you're at the greatest risk.
[00:07:28] Chip cards are more secure.
[00:07:30] But if you're in doubt, put your chip card in an RFID sleeve and sleep well.
[00:07:36] And, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, if you join our Patreon group at the second or third levels, you get a free sleeve.
[00:07:45] You're likely to attend some holiday parties at a local watering hole.
[00:07:49] While trading office gossip, keep an eye on the server who took your credit card to pay the bill.
[00:07:55] They sometimes write down numbers from the card so they can use or sell that data later online.
[00:08:01] With the right equipment, the card can be quickly cloned onto blank cards so they have a full duplicate.
[00:08:10] Hey there, I'm James, host of Dakota Spotlight.
[00:08:13] We're back with a new season.
[00:08:14] You Killed Chris, A Friend's Fight for Justice.
[00:08:17] It's a chilling throwback to 1968.
[00:08:20] A college freshman, Christine Rothschild, is murdered on campus during her morning walk.
[00:08:24] Join us as we dive into this unsolved case and follow a friend's relentless pursuit of the truth,
[00:08:30] all the way from the flower power era to today.
[00:08:33] Binge You Killed Chris on your favorite app or at dakotaspotlight.com.
[00:08:39] Pack your body bags.
[00:08:40] We're going on a slaycation.
[00:08:42] Jim, what's a slaycation?
[00:08:44] A slaycation is a murder or mysterious death that happens while you're on vacation.
[00:08:48] If you like to mix humor with horror and travel, join me, Kim Davis.
[00:08:54] And me, Adam Tux Davis.
[00:08:55] And me, Cherry Colbert.
[00:08:56] As we look at the craziest slaycations that will have you asking what the F is wrong with people.
[00:09:03] You can find Slaycation on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:09:07] Just remember, getting away can be murder.
[00:09:09] Credit cards are vulnerable, but until someone comes up with a practical way of protecting transactions,
[00:09:16] there are few ways of protecting yourself.
[00:09:19] Even cash can be suspect.
[00:09:21] Here's ABC7 Bay Area describing just how the act of getting cash makes you vulnerable.
[00:09:27] It starts with a little glue poured into an ATM machine.
[00:09:31] That forces consumers to use a tap function setting up a domino effect.
[00:09:37] That guy scammed me last night at the ATM machine.
[00:09:42] Pamela Bongiorno showed us how thieves got her money at this ATM.
[00:09:46] I inserted my card.
[00:09:48] It didn't work.
[00:09:49] A man in line told her she could tap her card instead, and it worked.
[00:09:54] She got her cash, walked off.
[00:09:56] But the next day, a shot.
[00:09:58] Why is my account almost $1,000 less?
[00:10:01] She found three more withdrawals on her account.
[00:10:05] $940 gone.
[00:10:07] Oh my God, that happened to me.
[00:10:09] Stephanie Berry was amazed to see our story about Pamela and Rob Bell.
[00:10:14] I didn't think anything of it.
[00:10:15] I thought he was just using the ATM.
[00:10:17] And Justin Sindelow.
[00:10:19] My initial reaction was, wait a second.
[00:10:20] I definitely did not withdraw that much money.
[00:10:22] By tapping, the transaction window stays open even after the cash comes out.
[00:10:27] So, if a customer walks off without closing the window, a thief can simply step up and make more withdrawals.
[00:10:36] Chase said customers should wait for this screen.
[00:10:38] Do you want to do something else?
[00:10:41] Click no to close out the session.
[00:10:43] I think I closed it, but you know what?
[00:10:45] Maybe I left it open.
[00:10:47] Bank managers told victims the scam has been ongoing since last fall.
[00:10:51] Yet, Chase rejected all of their clients, saying they authorized the transaction.
[00:10:57] Why would I make four transactions in one day?
[00:11:00] The investigator from Chase just made me feel so icky.
[00:11:04] Oh, how do we know you didn't steal it?
[00:11:06] Why would I steal my own money?
[00:11:07] I just felt real betrayed.
[00:11:09] You know, I'm not going to take no for an answer.
[00:11:11] Pamela filed her claim four times before Chase replaced her money.
[00:11:15] But after our inquiries, the bank did refund all of the victims in this report, telling us...
[00:11:21] We have credited our customers in full and are taking additional steps to protect patrons.
[00:11:28] So, now you're credit card aware.
[00:11:30] You may feel comfortable going online for Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
[00:11:35] Well, let me shake your confidence in that.
[00:11:38] It's what I do.
[00:11:40] If you're using a reputable merchant, odds are strong you'll be safe.
[00:11:45] But what if you think you're being a smart shopper and are on the store's website, but you're really not?
[00:11:51] For a few sawbucks, you can buy all the tools you need to build a phishing website that looks just like the reputable merchants.
[00:11:59] It even comes with templates.
[00:12:03] Here's how it's done.
[00:12:04] We begin just after this guy tells us what tool to acquire to create those phishing websites and where to buy it.
[00:12:11] Now, with the tool downloaded in our machine, we'll start creating our phishing website by typing one simple line.
[00:12:18] Plain and simple.
[00:12:19] This tool even gives us a variety of websites to choose from.
[00:12:22] So, you can see how convenient and effortless it is for the scammers out there.
[00:12:27] And in this demonstration, we will be creating an Amazon phishing site which is index number 34.
[00:12:33] So, we type in number 34 and within seconds, the website should be created.
[00:12:39] Now, once the URL has been generated, it means that the website is ready.
[00:12:44] So, let's check out the phishing website to see how it looks like.
[00:12:48] We pull out our favorite browser.
[00:12:51] We paste the generated link in and enter.
[00:12:55] So, what you see on the screen now is the Amazon phishing site we have just created together.
[00:13:01] Now, I'm going to visit the real Amazon login page on the right-hand side of the screen to see how our phishing site measure up.
[00:13:08] Okay, so here we are.
[00:13:10] I think we can all agree that the fake one is definitely good enough to catch someone off guard if they are not careful enough.
[00:13:17] Now that our website is ready, let's move on to the next step to deliver the website to the target.
[00:13:22] There are many ways to do this and in this video, we will be demonstrating one of the popular ways which is sending it via an email.
[00:13:30] Okay, here we have drafted an email ready to send to our target.
[00:13:34] But before that, let's insert the fake website URL and cover it up with an attractive tagline so that the target is more likely to click on it.
[00:13:41] Let's go with check here to validate your email address.
[00:13:46] And now that we have a perfect email, let's send it out to the target.
[00:13:51] Okay, and here we are in our final mile where we wait for our target to bite the bait.
[00:13:55] For demonstration purposes, let's assume that the target takes the bait.
[00:13:59] On the left-hand side of the screen, we have the target's view where he would read through the email thinking that he got lucky and go ahead validating his email.
[00:14:07] He clicks on the link, get redirected to our phishing site where we will be notified as shown in the screen here.
[00:14:14] Looking at this login page with all the familiar Amazon logo and layout, the convinced and careless target punch in his email address and password and logs in.
[00:14:24] And that's it, we have his credentials.
[00:14:27] The target would be brought to the real Amazon page and by this time, I hope he realized that he has been tricked.
[00:14:33] Now what we have just went through is only a simple example.
[00:14:36] With a little more effort, one could also customize and create other popular phishing sites that are lucrative like banking sites.
[00:14:44] It is also crazy to know how simple it is for anyone to create a phishing site to start preying on people.
[00:14:51] So I hope you can all be more vigilant and careful.
[00:14:55] Pay attention and verify when in doubt.
[00:14:58] The weakest link in cybersecurity is often human.
[00:15:03] How do you protect yourself?
[00:15:05] It's not that difficult, but as I always recommend, slow down.
[00:15:10] If you hover, not click your mouse over a link, in the lower left hand of your browser you'll see the full link to where it wants to take you.
[00:15:19] Read that carefully.
[00:15:21] Scammers regularly buy domain names that are just slightly different from the real domain, so a quick look and a click and you get robbed.
[00:15:30] Look for misspellings of the merchant's name or unusual extensions.
[00:15:34] And if two different domains show up in the same link, only one of them will be configured to work for the scammers.
[00:15:42] This one's up to you and no firewall or VPN will protect you.
[00:15:46] Some antivirus software can catch this trick, but scammers move quickly,
[00:15:51] especially during the holiday times when people are spending a lot of money and doing it quickly.
[00:15:56] These fake sites are called phishing sites because they do one of two things and often both.
[00:16:03] First, they now have your logon or other identifying information so they can go on a shopping spree at your expense.
[00:16:11] The second is they can plant malware on your computer to steal stuff that's important to you.
[00:16:16] But if the scammers are good, those trusted merchants can give themselves a nice holiday gift.
[00:16:22] This one has a target on its back.
[00:16:24] It is now issuing a response to a viral video regarding its Black Friday pricing.
[00:16:29] So it has us shaking our heads at this one.
[00:16:32] Take a look at it.
[00:16:33] Come close to your screen.
[00:16:34] It shows a woman in Target taking off the Black Friday deal sign.
[00:16:38] And underneath it, you can see that the price never changes from the sign that was in front.
[00:16:43] Now, in a statement, Target says the TVs were actually on sale before Black Friday,
[00:16:49] and they just continue to offer those items at the same discounted prices.
[00:16:54] A lot of people in the comments, yeah, they are saying companies have been doing this for years.
[00:16:59] You be the judge.
[00:17:00] Y'all got enough TVs anyway.
[00:17:01] Y'all buy a TV every Black Friday.
[00:17:04] Just to watch WFAA.
[00:17:06] Well, that's good.
[00:17:07] They can watch us on that app, too.
[00:17:08] I'm just saying.
[00:17:09] Those friendly merchants who welcome you into their stores have their own scams.
[00:17:14] And these are perfectly legal.
[00:17:16] Some stores, online or brick and mortar, are rumored to have the best prices.
[00:17:22] On some items, they do.
[00:17:24] Some claim it's their lowest price ever.
[00:17:26] But once again, it's time to reach for that salt shaker.
[00:17:31] They call it shopping for a reason.
[00:17:33] And it's up to us, the consumer, to know what the best price is on the items we need.
[00:17:39] That means going to the websites, scanning the flyers, and just being aware of what things should cost.
[00:17:45] I buy pork butts to smoke.
[00:17:48] I know what they cost, and it's unusual for a grocery store's flyer to claim it's on sale.
[00:17:53] When it's not.
[00:17:54] Or, in the fine print, you'll see that it's bone-in.
[00:17:58] Which means you're paying for something you can't eat.
[00:18:01] But, if you have a dog.
[00:18:14] If you enjoy the podcast and want to support it,
[00:18:17] please tell your friends and encourage them to listen.
[00:18:20] If you want to show us some more love,
[00:18:22] consider donating a few dollars a month via Patreon.
[00:18:26] It not only helps with expenses,
[00:18:28] it allows us to take the podcast to the next level.
[00:18:31] All without advertising.
[00:18:34] You can sign up by going to patreon.com
[00:18:37] and search for Scams and Cons.
[00:18:40] That's p-a-t-r-e-o-n dot com.
[00:18:44] You can also find a link in the show notes.
[00:18:47] Thanks for listening.
[00:18:48] Is the pressure of your wedding day being perfect from sunrise to sunset weighing on your mind?
[00:19:05] Planning a wedding is stressful.
[00:19:07] But guess what?
[00:19:08] We are here to help.
[00:19:10] On the BrideChilla Podcast, we celebrate love and help you plan your wedding day.
[00:19:14] We're all about keeping it real and having fun every step of the way.
[00:19:17] So whether you're just starting to plan or counting down the days,
[00:19:21] we're here to help you stay cool, calm, and collected.
[00:19:25] We have expert tips and amazing guests like wedding dress designer Haley Page.
[00:19:30] Let's get this party started and embrace your inner BrideChilla.
[00:19:35] Listen to BrideChilla wherever you get podcasts or visit us at thebridechilla.com.
[00:19:40] Thank you.