C. Oregonians face flood of spam calls, emails

(Update: Adding comments from local scam targets, Better Business Bureau)

People in Oregon lost an average of nearly $6,500 to online scams last year, according to a report released Tuesday by CenturyLinkQuote.

The team reviewed FBI statistics and the 2018 Annual Report by the Internet Crime Compliant Center, or IC3 . It found Oregon ranks as the No. 11 state in scam victims per capita and 22nd in the loss amount per scam victim.

CenturyLinkQuote said most victims are affected by a non-payment, non-delivery scam. That’s when you are not paid for any goods or services you provide, or when you do not receive something you have already paid for.

Compromised business or personal email accounts are the scams that caused people to lose the most money. For example, someone may ask you for an illegal wire transfer or request money through gift cards. The FBI says this usually occurs when a fraudster is spoofing the identity of a real employee.

Central Oregonians said Tuesday they’ve experienced this, as well as other scams.

” This morning at work, I got an email posing as my boss, asking me if I could grab her some gift cards that needed to be sent out within the hour, ” Megan Brauer said. ” So, I immediately went to her and was, like, ‘Are you emailing me this morning? She was, like, ‘Absolutely not!’ ”

Jim Lahey said, ” I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven spam calls since 9:47 a.m. ”

Kelly Wood said, ” I actually got two this morning, and they were from the United States calling. They were both different random numbers, but (saying) that my Social Security card was breached. ”

David Hudson sad, ” I blocked I don’t know how many numbers in the past couple of months. It’s been happening way worse than normal in the past year. ”

Officials with the Better Business Bureau want you to know that government agencies, such as the Social Security Administration or the IRS, will never contact you asking for information over the phone. They will only do so via mail.

This summer, travelers have been losing thousands of dollars to Expedia imposters, and millions of Americans are affected by the Capital One data breach, according to the BBB.

” Summertime , high travel season, there’s a lot of potential scammers out there,” said Tracy Vedder , director of communications for the BBB Northwest + Pacific. “They know when things like this happen that it’s a gold mine for them.”

Customers are calling the Expedia customer service line asking to make changes to a reservation. Instead of speaking to an actual representative, they get connected to an imposter asking the customer to purchase gift cards before receiving a refund.

In March, a Seattle hacker gained access to around 100 million Capital One accounts in what the BBB is calling one of the biggest data breaches ever.

These come at a time when many of you are traveling for summer vacation.

” We do have sort of a perfect storm of events seeming to be occurring right now, ” Vedder said. ” This is one of the largest data breaches that’s ever been reported. Expedia is used by millions of people across the country, across North America. So, these are both two very big, significant issues. ”

As for the Expedia scam, Vedder said most trustworthy companies will never ask customers for gift cards as a form of payment.

If you believe your Capital One information has been compromised, the BBB advises you to stay calm, but don’t wait to protect yourself.

” I think when consumers hear about a data breach like this, there’s a tendency, you might want to panic. But don’t, ” Vedder said. ” Just stay calm, but don’t hesitate. Don’t wait to go ahead and move forward and take the steps to protect your credit, both your credit now and your credit information for the future. ”

If you believe your data’s been compromised, Vedder said there are a few things you should do immediately.

Contact Capital One and your bank and have them freeze your card. This will prevent anyone from accessing your credit report or scores.

Also, let them know if you see any fraudulent charges. Vedder suggests you keep receipts in case you need to prove which charges you authorized and which ones you did not.

If you want to find or report a scam, visit the BBB Scam Tracker.