ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The holidays can be prime season for scam artists who are trying to get your money and personal information.
Action News Reporter spoke with the Better Business Bureau about how you can stay safe.
Many of us have seen the emails or received the phone calls: Deals seeming too good to be true or scam artists asking for our money or personal information. But as these schemes to steal our money continue to change, there are a few simple ways to keep your identity and money safe.
For Alona, this holiday season has been spent on the phone. A caller claiming to work for Bank of America called her 4 times between thanksgiving and Christmas, asking questions to get her personal information.
"He could lead me very quickly into getting something he could grab a hold of," Alona said.
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Alona called Bank of America and they told her it was a scam, just one of many that have been going around during 2014.
"There's the governments grant scam, the advance fee loan scam and either foreign lottery or sweepstake scam," said Tom Stephens, president of the BBB of Northeast Florida.
Three popular scams that ask you for your personal information or try to get your money.
"If they ask you send money to any individual on any kind of instant money transfer system like a Money Gram or Green Dot money card, then the chances are about 110 percent that it's a scam," said Stephens.
Other tips to keep your money and identify safe, Stephens said never send money overseas to organizations you don't know and never give your Social Security number out over the phone.
"Guard personal information like its gold, cause that's the key to the bank account basically," said Stephens.
Advice Alona followed when she didn't fall for a phone scam. Now she's making sure others don't get fooled and sending out a message to those who keep trying.
"Stop doing it, stop trying to hurt the senior citizens or anybody for that manner whose had their hardworking money you're trying to steal it," said Alona.
Another scam to be aware of especially during the holiday season is fake charities. Stephens said that if a charity contacts you and you're suspicious, ask them to send you their annual report which they should have no problem doing.
The Bank of America phone scam that Alona received came from this number: 1-314-226-1459. It shows up on caller ID as Bank of America but is a scam.
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