Holiday season fuels more scams across C.O.

People share the latest scam methods with NewsChannel 21

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- With Giving Tuesday at hand and the holiday season in full gear, scammers are busy looking for new ways to fool you and take your personal information.

Tamera Sauter of La Pine told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday she was offered $250,000 in grant money, supposedly by a friend who contacted her on Facebook Messenger. 

Tamera Sauter later realized her friend’s Facebook account had been hacked, and the person she had given out her personal phone number to was a scammer going by the name “Kathleen.”

“This text, this person kept texting me, over and over again,” Sauter said. “My concern is, there’s a lot of elderly people out there on Facebook, and Messenger kind of goes along with Facebook. It would be very easy for them to be deceived, because I almost swallowed the hook.”

Popular scams generally demand money, claiming a person may face imprisonment if the money is not paid.

The Better Business Bureau wants to remind people of scams masquerading as charities, asking people to donate money to a phony charity organization. 

Danielle Kane with the Better Business Bureau told NewsChannel 21 elderly people should be aware of scams, especially during the holiday season.

She said a new scam is going around where people give out gift cards for online shopping, but the cards are fake or the websites for those gift cards are not legitimate.

She also said people should not believe every Google search when they are looking for the perfect holiday gift.

“Whatever you’re looking for on Google, if you know you’re looking for a Hydroflask this year, and you Google that, those cookies are going to follow you around on every other device,” Kane said.

For more information regarding scams and to find out if websites are legitimate, visit the BBB’s website at bbb.org.