|
December 1, 2025 
|
|
|
Welcome back, everyone.
’Tis the season for holiday scams. I’m back to reporting on fraud this week, and thought I’d share three quick tips I picked up along the way:
1) There’s a new scam proliferating, which lures victims to fake retail sites that are imitating well-known brands. Scammers send emails that link to these sites, or they may appear on social media with realistic ads.
When you follow the links, however, you’ll land at a counterfeit but convincing site.
“These sites look almost identical to legitimate retailers but exist solely to steal credit card information and personal data,” said Amy Mortlock, vice president of marketing at ShadowDragon, a data analysis and investigations firm, in a recent email.
The takeaway: Don’t click on embedded links. Instead, go directly to retailers’ websites (the fake sites may have slightly different web addresses that shoppers overlook). And always use credit cards, which have stronger protections than many other payment methods.
2) Avoid putting checks in the mail. Criminals often fish them out of mailboxes, wash the checks and rewrite them with higher amounts to themselves.
If you must mail checks or money orders (and even banks really wish you wouldn’t), bring it to the post office. And if you must use a blue box in your neighborhood, drop the mail in shortly before the pick up time (which is posted on the box) so it’s not sitting there for days on end. This suggestion came from New York Police Department officers who were speaking at a scam prevention event at a Chase branch in Harlem.
3) Be extra careful at the A.T.M. Look for so-called skimming devices, where criminals attach phony card contraptions over the real card readers (either at the bank lobby entrance door or on the A.T.M. itself). And cover the keypad when entering your pin to prevent hidden cameras that may be out of view nearby from recording it.
Most of the victims I’ve spoken with have been ensnared at a vulnerable moment or when they’re otherwise preoccupied. It may sound obvious, but the best advice just may be to slow down and pay attention.
Below, find a roundup of recent money-related stories across the Times. Have a great week.
