AARP fraud expert Amy Nofziger joins KSFR reporter Mary Lou Cooper to discuss 2025 holiday shopping scams.
According to AARP, everyone can be a target for holiday shopping scams, but older adults are more frequently targeted because they hold the majority of wealth in the U.S. A recent AARP survey found that:
- 55 percent of respondents said they had received notices from potential shipping company imposters about an issue with their packages; and
- One-third of those surveyed had given or received a gift card with no balance on it, which is called gift card draining. Inspect the front and back of these cards and buy closer to the front of the store. E-gift cards don’t have as much potential for tampering.
Nofziger offered advice on several other holiday shopping scams.
- Peer-to-peer (P2P) payment aps such as Cash AP, Venmo and Zelle are especially tempting to scammers. P2P aps should only be used to transfer money to people you know well. These payment methods do not have the same protections as credit cards, and AARP recommends that you do not use them for on-line shopping. You could send money to a scammer and get nothing in return.
- Fake ads on social media look like real ads. AARP’s shopping survey found that 39 percent of people experienced fraud when buying through on-line ads on social media. Go to the vendor’s actual web site. Or type in the company’s name plus fraud, scam and complaint in your search engine to check out potential frauds.
- Debit cards v. credit cards--AARP recommends that consumers always use a credit card for purchases, saving the debit card for your ATM. If you do shop with your debit card, there are fewer safeguards than offered by credit cards—less time to report potential fraud while meanwhile someone can take money directly from your actual checking account.
- Porch pirates—30 percent of those surveyed by AARP had a package stolen from their front door. The thieves follow the trucks, park on the side and then run to your porch and grab packages. Start a relationship with the drivers of delivery trucks and ask them to place your packages behind pots etc. If you’re not going to be home, ask a neighbor to pick up any packages on your doorstep and offer to do the same for them.
- Charitable giving—with the barrage of holiday solicitations from TV, phone and mail, how do we know which causes are legitimate and which are not? AARP reports that in its survey, 35 percent of those responding said they feel like they got fraudulent requests for money. Do your research and check out any group seeking a donation at give.org or charitynavigator.org. AARP suggests that at the beginning of the year you make a list of charities you are considering, check them out and donate early in the year.
- Holiday pet scams—it’s that time of year when ads on social media feature puppies under the tree and cats in stockings. These ads usually request payment via peer-to-peer aps. AARP advises against buying pets on-line and instead asks consumers to consider adopting from animal shelters.
AARP’s final advice for holiday shopping is to slow down, assume everything is a scam, and then work to verify that it’s not.
If you would like to test your holiday shopping skills, click on this AARP on-line quiz:
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/holiday-scams-survey-2025/
Music for this podcast is: Music Box We Wish you a Merry Christmas by MaestroALF, CC0 1.0
