How to spot holiday shopping scams and protect your bank account

All right welcome back everybody as you take a look at your phone or maybe your email you might have something that looks a little funny well that's happening millions of us hunting for bargains ahead You know, you're distracted, of black friday cyber monday so and this is the time that criminals can really prey on you, shopping for your personal information. What do we do about it? How do we protect ourselves? How do we help our parents protect themselves? Well, Emily Sutton is Marketing Vice President at Public Service Credit Union. Emily, welcome. Thank you so much for having us. Let's talk about these things come in, and they're getting more sophisticated with use of AI technology. So first of all, what are we looking out for, whether it's on our phone or in our emails or even, I guess, even a phone call, right? So with the holiday season coming, there's going to be an uptick because they're using the fact that everyone's so busy with family events, community events to create urgency. So you're going to be having those delivery text messages come in saying there's something up with your package. You're going to have phone calls come in from people who are going to start sounding more comfortable. More human, right? More human. Yeah. Or you're going to get email messages or, again, additional texts that sound like a brand you may be working from. And a lot of that is AI incorporated. So they're getting more and more sophisticated every day. So what are we looking out for? Because we are getting packages delivered, right? We are shopping online. So how, what are the red flags? So a couple of the red flags that you can look out for is the phone number that it's coming from. Does it actually connect to the brand? If it's a website that they're linking you to, the best practice is just go to the actual retailer that you got it from. Look at the tracking information. They'll have any notices about your deliveries there. A lot of times it's just safer to go right back to the source. Even in some of the websites they'll send, there could be one letter off. So it is as small of details as that one letter to maybe they're trying to build a relationship with you and say, well, I saw you here. No you didn't, but they're getting you to talk and then to be able to keep talking. So it's getting, like I said, more sophisticated day by day. What does it take for people to scam you? In other words, if I click on a text message that says your package is Is, we can't deliver it, click here. Is that enough for them to get information from my phone? Or what does it take for them to steal my phone? Financial information or steal my identity? How much information do they need? So they don't need a lot. If anything, they can start with, did you click? That means that you're more likely to click again. So they'll start targeting you a little bit more frequently. If they get you to that website and it looks believable enough that you put any of your credit card information or personal information, that's one more layer that they have where they can either start utilizing that or they can build off another scam to make it more convincing. So it can be as small as I clicked it to I actually gave them information. And now my personal information is compromised. And some of them look so inviting because it'll say, oh, your storage is filled up. Click here and we'll help clean out your mailbox or whatever it says on there. And it seems like a legit business. Yep. And before you know it, you're typing in your credit card information. So I think one of the biggest and easiest things to do is slow down and do not Act quickly with any of this stuff, right? 100%. They are banking on the fact that they're pushing for urgency. They are saying you have to do this now or some critical thing is going to happen. So really it is, if it's an actual retailer or your financial institution, because we're seeing a lot of spoofing of financial institutions right now, just take a pause. It looks like your bank is texting you. Yep. That's becoming more frequent, especially with the use of AI. So, again, our risk team at Public Service Credit Union will be proud of you if you hang up on us and call the main number. We have those success stories all the time that we highlight. So when in doubt, if it's that actual relationship, they are fine with you taking time to validate. If it's someone who's a scammer, they're more likely to want to keep you on the phone, get something immediately or push from the time piece of it. Yeah. So do not act quickly. That's where we goof up a lot of these things where we are doing or we're multitasking. We see something. Oh, what's this text? I got to click on this or my package is going to be sent back. So do not have those quick reactions and figure out a way to work around whatever Text that is, and like you say, go to the actual, go to the FedEx website or call the retailer, right? Especially if you think of the influx of packages we're all receiving, they're going to start spoofing USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and they're going to rely on the fact that you have so much coming in, you're not going to immediately know what they're referencing. It is. And with any of this tech that we're using, even when you're shopping for, I was looking for a hotel room, and the first thing I clicked on, I was going to book the room and it was some random site. It was not the hotel site. I thought it was. So there are so many ways when we're moving too quickly that it's very easy to make these mistakes. There's, again, more and more they're layering it at this point. So you've got to be more vigilant than ever. All right. And we can all go on your website, right, even if we're not a member of the Public Service Credit Union? Yeah, please reach out to us at psunow.com. We are a resource for Michiganders across the state to be able to help them navigate these situations. We appreciate you. Yeah, we've got to keep the conversation going for sure throughout the holidays. Thank you, Emily. Of course. We'll be right back.