Tennessee’s 5 biggest scams of 2023: How you can avoid falling for them
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The holiday shopping season is in full swing. Unfortunately, so are scammers. In our series on top Tennessee scams, News 2 explored the scams you need to be aware of, including the No. 1 scam in the state: online shopping scams.
#1 SCAM: ONLINE SHOPPING
Like a lot of parents, Jayme Johnson is eager to give her son an amazing childhood. She saw a social media post advertising Taylor Swift tickets, and she jumped on the opportunity. She was aware of online shopping scams on Facebook, but there were no warning signs with this post.
“I went ahead and I sent the money through…and I knew with Zelle it’s immediate,” said Johnson.
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The $650 for two tickets went through, but the tickets never came. Frustrated, Johnson asked for a refund: “As soon as I said that, they blocked me on Messenger, and they did the same to my friend, and I had no way of communicating.”
“Looking for that special gift for your kids that you want to get to before it sells out, moving really quickly, it’s very easy to overlook the types of red flags that are there when it comes to scammers and online shopping,” said Natalya Rice, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
She added that scammers are after one of two things — your personal data or your money. For Johnson, it was her money.
Take a look at Tennessee. This year alone, the FTC has received 5,879 reports of online shopping scams. That’s 14.6% of scams.
“These are primarily fake online stores or fake products,” said Rice.
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Here’s how to avoid falling victim:
Rule 1: Look for signs like the lock symbol or the letters “https.” Those often indicate that the website is encrypted and safe. However, there are exceptions, too.
“They can be fake images, fake icons, things like that, so it’s more like a layered approach that we would recommend, that you do several things,” said Rice.
Rule 2: Before buying from a new company you’ve never shopped with, go to a search engine, type in the business name and the word “scam,” and see if you get any hits.
“That way, you can see what other people are saying about it, see if people have already complained,” Rice said.
Rule 3: If you’re still suspicious, call the Division of Consumer Affairs for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office at 615-741-4737 or toll free inside Tennessee at 800-342-8385.
Rule 4: Look carefully at how they want you to pay.
“If this company or this online store is requiring you to pay with a gift card, a wire transfer, they’re requiring to pay with crypto, those are definitely red flags that you need to stop and pause what you’re doing before you continue,” Rice explained.
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Rice added you should definitely pause if the seller wants you to download a third-party app to pay, because that can expose you to not just losing your money, but also your data: “When you download these third-party apps, sometimes you’re exposing your device to malware or a virus so that now the consumer has access to personal information.”
As for Johnson, she later learned that Facebook page was in fact real, but scammers had hacked it, making her believe she was buying concert tickets from a local mom just like herself.
“You always hear of these things and you think, like, ‘Well that, I’m smarter than that, that’s not going to happen to me,’ and, well, it did,” Johnson said.
If a scammer does get your money, call your bank first. If it’s a gift card or wire transfer, call that company immediately, and report the theft at Reportfraud.ftc.gov.
#2 SCAM: BUSINESS IMPOSTER
Have you ever gotten a text about an item you never actually ordered? There’s a good chance it’s a business imposter scam, the second most common scam in Tennessee.
It’s a scam that led to a retiree losing thousands.
“I’ve had to get a new debit card. I’ve had to stop my American Express,” said Johnnie Breen.
The scam started with a simple call. The man on the other end told Breen that he was with Amazon, his name was Charlie, and he needed to fix some problems he saw in her Amazon account.
“He needed to get into my phone to do some things to help me. He acted like he was the hero,” said Breen.
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However, Charlie was anything but a hero.
“They are extremely, extremely good at making you think they are exactly who they are not,” said Robyn Householder, the president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) for Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.
Householder said, unfortunately, they see these scams quite a bit: “There’s a lot that can go on in that few minutes that you got to be extremely cautious about.”
For Breen, it did go wrong. The scammer got into her bank account, changed the pin on her phone, and started buying iPhones and gift cards, as well as taking money out of her account.
Business imposter scams are the second biggest fraud committed in Tennessee, according to the FTC. As of October, 5,033 reported cases this year, making up 12.5% of scams in the state. In addition, they come in many different styles.
“I’ve been hearing from consumers that a lot of these scams are people posing as utility companies, your service providers,” said Rice.
The FTC attorney said if you think you’ve encountered a business imposter scam via text, email, or phone, trust your gut and verify.
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“One thing you can do is immediately contact somebody you know, and explain to them what just happened,” Rice said. “Because sometimes I feel like it takes you explaining out loud to someone else for them to say, ‘Hey, that doesn’t sound right.’ And you’re like, ‘Right, wait, that doesn’t sound right.'”
Unfortunately, Breen never made that call to her daughter. Her hard-earned money was gone. “I feel so stupid, because I saw this happening, and it was just like, ‘Oh he’s fixing something,'” said Breen.
The good news for Breen is that her bank is helping her out with the $5,300.
#3 SCAM: GOVERNMENT IMPOSTER
There’s a good chance you’ve been very busy during this holiday season. Scammers know that, and they exploit your stress in order to get your money, like what happened to a Mt. Juliet couple who fell victim to a spoof call from who they thought was a member of the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office.
Most likely, you don’t get a phone call from a government agency every single day, so if you do, you might feel a little anxious.
One Mt. Juliet couple couple certainly was when they received this voicemail: “This is Deputy Calvin…with the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office.”
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The caller said that Bill Berry’s wife, Sandy, was in trouble for failing to report for jury duty. The couple was instructed to purchase $3,500 worth of gift cards from a local store, or Sandy would be arrested. Fearing the worst, the couple complied.
“What we’re seeing with those is that these scammers will say that someone’s eligible to get some type of benefit, or that there’s some problem, and that this person needs to immediately provide personal information like a SSN, or they need them to immediately pay for something, so that’s typically how these scams start,” explained Rice.
Government imposter scams are Tennessee’s third most frequent scam in 2023. Tennesseans reported 3,460 government imposter scams to the FTC as of October. That’s 8.6% of all scams reported.
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“Consumers just have to really be on their toes,” said Householder.
The CEO of the BBB of Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky said it’s important to remember that a legitimate government agency will most likely communicate with you the old-fashioned way: “The government typically communicates with you via the good old United States Post Office, not call, not text, certainly not email, and most definitely not through social media.”
The Berry family had to learn that lesson the hard way, even though Bill’s gut was telling him from the very beginning that something just wasn’t quite right.
Unfortunately, government imposter scams are very popular this time of the year as the deadline looms before the new year.
#4 SCAM: LOTTERY, PRIZES AND SWEEPSTAKES
You won a million dollars! I’m sure you have dreamed of hearing that line. Sadly, criminals know that, making lottery scams big business in Tennessee.
Saturia is a cautionary tale because she lost a tremendous amount of money in a lottery scam: “I don’t have any more money. I don’t have money for gas, for food, and for rent. I’m completely broke.”
Saturia estimated that she lost a staggering $190,000 over several years.
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How did the scammers do it? They told her she won the lottery, and not just any lottery, but $187 million. There was just one catch — she had to pay them first.
“He told me I had won $187 million, that I will have to pay the insurance, that I have to pay the fees,” Saturia explained.
As the old adage goes, Householder said, “If it sounds too good to be true, chances are it’s simply not.”
Householder added that legitimate sweepstakes organizations, such as Publisher’s Clearinghouse, will not have you pay your own money in order to enter and potentially win money: “Folks don’t realize that you don’t have to spend money to enter into a prize program or a sweepstake, and so when you’re being asked to purchase something or asked to pay a fee, again, that’s the big red flag.”
Out of the top five scams in Tennessee, prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries rank fourth.
As of October, according to data News 2 obtained from the FTC, there are 3,456 of these scams reported in Tennessee. That’s 8.6% of scams, and the scammers can be hard to find.
“Most of them are overseas,” said Householder. “It’s very difficult for any governing body to stop it because it’s not being perpetrated in the US, but again, with website, voice-over IP, and AI, you don’t necessarily know where they are until you really do a lot of homework to track it.”
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Rice warned that sweepstakes scams come in many forms, including online.
“Especially for people who play online games, especially if you’ve got your children playing games on your phone or on a gaming console, it can be very tempting, especially if they’re on the phone and they’re playing games through a social media app,” said Rice. “Next thing you know, you’ve got pop-ups all over your phone, and ‘You’ve Won,’ and it can be very tempting, because who doesn’t want to think they won $5,000 from clicking an ad?”
Whether children playing online games, or senior citizens like Saturia receiving scams in the mail, the CEO of the BBB of Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky said to remember this: “Just like when you go to the grocery store, you get something, you pay for it. When you’re being asked to give money before you get anything, that’s your flag. Stay away.”
Sadly, Saturia lost everything. She eventually had to move in with friends.
If you spot a sweepstakes scam, report it to the BBB’s Scamtracker. They share that information daily with law enforcement.
#5 SCAM: JOB PLACEMENT
‘Tis the season of seasonal jobs. The internet has made finding one of those jobs much easier. However, that comes with risks. In fact, more than 1,000 Tennesseans reported they were scammed by a job posting.
When Miranda Owens wanted to find a new job, she went right to her computer: “I was really banking on finding a job because I had looked through hundreds of different job listings at that point.”
Eventually, she found a job she liked doing remote work. Before diving in, the 24-year-old did some homework, researching the company and its employees.
“I looked them up, I looked at the people who were contacting me, so I felt reassured,” she said.
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Then, Owens got the job: “At the end of that interview, she told me, basically, ‘You did really well during the interview, we think that you would be a really good candidate for us, you are hired.'”
Owens thought that would be the end of her job hunt. In reality, it was just the start of the job scam.
“There’s a lot that can go on in that very few minutes that you’ve got to be extremely cautious about,” said Householder.
Whether it’s an online, text, or phone interview, be cautious of divulging too much information.
“They will set up a Google Meet Up to interview you, because what’s the purpose of that? Gathering all kinds of private information. What’s one of the things that virtually every employer needs for payroll? Your Social Security number, and once that’s gone, that’s an open door for fraud,” Householder explained.
The one telltale sign of a job scam — the “company” sends you a check to buy some office supplies, such as a new work phone or a laptop. In fact, that’s how they got Owens. The check turned out to be fraudulent, and she was out nearly $5,000.
“I just felt absolutely and completely powerless. I was devastated,” said Owens.
“That’s one of the biggest things that we see with these job scams is that the company wants to send the person a check…No legitimate job is going to give you a check and ask you to send them money back for the purposes of equipment. That is a huge red flag,” Rice explained.
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Other red flags:
The compensation is too good to be true.
The company immediately requests social security number for payroll.
The interviewer communicates via personal email instead of a corporate one.
According to the FTC, in 2023, Tennesseans have reported 1,175 job scams as of October, making job scams the fifth most popular scam in the Volunteer State.
The BBB said these scams go up this time of year as people look for a holiday side hustle.
“A lot of folks look for seasonal work this time of year, and so all of a sudden, because you’ve done a search online, you’re now getting Amazon offering you a position, or Macy’s offering you a position, or Walmart offering you a position. Well the funny thing about that, if you didn’t apply at one of those companies, chances are the job’s not real,” said Householder.
For Owens, it may be too late, but that’s not the case for you.
“Having my story out there, hopefully, it will prevent a lot more people to fall victim to this,” said Owens.
One tip: If you are interested in a job posting, double-check it. Go to that company’s main job posting page and confirm it’s the real deal before you apply.
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