(Shenandoah) — Each year, the number of online shoppers increases during the holiday season, along with an increase in scams.
That’s according to First Heritage Bank President Rusty Hunter and CEO and CFO Mandy Fielder. The Shenandoah-based bank officials are advising shoppers of the latest trends and scams to look out for this holiday season. Fielder says one of the forms that has been on the rise lately is an imposter scam.
“These people are calling and pretending to be somebody from somewhere and they’ve even mentioned Shazam before,” said Fielder. “But they’re trying to verify a transaction on your account — maybe an Amazon account or PayPal account for a large amount — trying to alert the person and scare them into giving them information.”
Fielder says that information can range from social security numbers, date of birth, their mother’s maiden name, or any account, debit, or credit card numbers. In addition, Hunter says some of the strategies used by scam callers have become more refined, making it more difficult to tell if it is indeed a scam.
“One of the things that we see now that people probably haven’t seen in the past is you can get a phone call now and the phone call will read on your caller-ID that it’s coming from Amazon,” Hunter explained. “And the number on the screen could be the correct number to Amazon, but…
