Cyber Security Awareness Poster
Gift card scams don’t just happen around the holidays! Scammers will call, text, or email any time of the year. They can try to blackmail you, trying to get you to buy gift cards as ransom. But sometimes they will impersonate loved ones or superiors to make you think you’re doing good or important work by buying gift cards.
If you receive an email, do not reply. Delete the email. If you’re unsure if the email is a scam, use an alternative method to communicate with the person in question. Emailing them at the same email address may not yield good results if their account has been hacked. We recommend using a different email address or calling or texting the person to see if they truly are requesting gift cards.
If you get a call, hand up the phone. If the scammer is demanding gift cards as ransom, don’t panic! It’s likely they do not have anything on you. If the scammer is pretending to be a loved one, try calling the family member back. Scammers can spoof numbers to call out but not to receive calls. If you get a text message, try calling your loved one instead via a number in your contact list rather than the number attached to the text.
If a scammer emails you and requests a call or text via an unknown number, do not call or text! Only use the number you know is correct.
As always, report scams to the FTC: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/
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