This holiday season, be on the lookout for the "12 Scams of Christmas," as the Better Business Bureau dubbed it. They released their listMonday.
Christmas time is about the classics: You know the phone call, "Grandson Chester is rotting away in jail," the scammer will say.
“Are you guy’s grandparents?” I asked Stuart couple Sheryl and Tom Essenburg who were visiting Downtown West Palm Beach.
“Yes,” Sheryl said.
“Have you heard of the grandparent scam?”
“Yes.”
Neal Quinter, from West Palm Beach, told us how he thwarts the call, “I talked to someone the other day he said, ‘Oh yeah, if my grandson is in jail why don’t you tell me the middle name of my grandson?’ and then the guy hung up the phone.”
“Hopefully I wouldn’t fall for it,” Sheryl said.
It’s also beginning to look a lot like look-alike websites.
“Shopping online is scary!” Sheryl said,
They might ask for the money to be wired or from a prepaid debit card. Although it’s been said many times, many ways.
“Don’t buy anything that seems too good to be true,” said Matt Wylly who was dressed in Santa Claus pajamas in downtown West Palm Beach looking at the Sandi Tree.
You better not pout, you better not cry because we’re giving you this advice from the Grinch’s worst nightmare.
“The trick is, just to simply slow down, be a little paranoid, question things. Just that little pause can make a huge difference between making a mistake and saving yourself,” said Alan Crowetz, a technology expert who founded InfoStream (Infostream.cc).
On the first day of Christmas, Tom gave to Sheryl.
“He already bought mine,” Sheryl said of Tom.
“What’d you get?” I asked.
“I got a ticket to Buffalo, New York to see my grandsons.”
It’s not quite Florida, but it’ll do.
“The Christmas trees are different than anything you’d ever see in Buffalo,” Sheryl said
And when the grandkid scammer calls, they will be ready.