12 Scams of Christmas: Text alert scams
We all know cyberspace is full of rip off artists trying to steal your money and your identity. While you can probably pick out many scams, there are new ones popping up all the time, especially this time of year.
That's why News 13's Jon Chrisos is On Your Side with the 12 Scams of Christmas.
Scammers are working overtime this time of year. And now they're *targeting* your cell phone, trying to get your personal information with the promise of a payout. That's why what's called Holiday Smishing is our 4th scam of Christmas.
A smishing text might say you've won a contest, go to a website, and enter the code for your free gift card. Patricia Bradley got one of those texts and she almost fell for it. “It's Christmas time. People really hope and pray for a $1,000 gift card. That'd be great."
This one promises a thousand dollar gift card to Target. All you have to do is enter your email, address, and date of birthday at targetcontests.com. But after giving up all that info, 13 On Your Side found, all you get are pages of offers and no target gift card.
Target says it's not running a contest and is trying to get to the bottom of it. We checked in with the Better Business Bureau, the organization is calling it a nationwide scam. Their advice is to delete the text message.
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