Avoiding Holiday Scams

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest shopping days of the year. People are reminded to be especially careful of scammers during the holiday season.

Scammers are finding new ways to access people’s bank accounts. Consumers lost more than $10 billion to scams in 2023, says the Federal Trade Commission.

There are several ways to avoid falling for frauds and scams.

"Make sure that you're not providing your overall PINs, usernames or passwords to any of your overall banking information," said Sr. Vice President and Head of Payment Risk Programs for Wells Fargo, Margarita Alvarez.

Scammers often try to make you think there’s a problem with your order deliveries and try to make you share your personal information. If you get a phone call, text or email you weren’t expecting, ignore it and don’t click on any links. 

Also watch out for fake shopping deals that might lead you to malicious websites.

If you think you've fallen into a scam, contact your bank and report the scam to the police.