‘Tis the Season for scams: BBB warns of holiday shopping traps

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Online shopping is booming this holiday season, but so are scams targeting unsuspecting shoppers.

Even members of the 19 News team have been targeted.

19 News Reporter Gabby Hart spoke with a representative from the Better Business Bureau, and she said this latest scam even showed up in her text messages.

Ericka Dilworth, VP of Operations for the Greater Cleveland Better Business Bureau, said the scam involves text messages with urgent-sounding messages about packages.

“I think it’s incredibly ironic that your staff has received them, our staff has received them, so you know it’s just going around,” Dilworth said.

The scammers are using various excuses to get people to click on a link, such as saying a package has an invalid zip code, needs delivery preferences, or that the driver can’t reach them.

“They’re either trying to gain access to your device, whether it’s your phone or your laptop or whatever it is that you’re using, or the other thing they’re trying to install is spyware, malware on your computer,” Dilworth explained.

To avoid falling victim to this scam, Dilworth advises not clicking on any links in suspicious text messages.

“Don’t trust the link; always go to whoever you ordered your package from and get clarification that way,” she said.

The U.S. Postal Service also issued a statement to 19 News, saying in part: “The Postal Service does not send unsolicited text messages, and official Postal Service texts do not contain links.”

If you think you’ve been targeted by a delivery scam, report it to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker website.

This helps them track these scams and warn others.

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