The holiday season is a time for giving but for scammers, it’s also a time for taking.
According to a new report from the AARP Fraud Watch Network, over one quarter of U.S. consumers have given or received a gift card that turned out to have no balance.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
This year, 82% of shoppers in the United States have experienced some form of fraud, from porch pirates stealing packages to sophisticated phishing schemes targeting online buyers.
What’s even more alarming is that many shoppers are completely unaware of the types of fraud lurking on the internet.
To help you protect yourself and your money this holiday season, News 6 will host a live chat at 11:20 a.m. Tuesday with Kathy Stokes, AARP’s director of fraud prevention programs, to discuss how to spot and avoid falling victim to a scam.
You can watch the interview live atop this story, on News 6+ and on the WKMG YouTube channel.