New year, old scams | Scam of the Week

CHICO — The holidays are over and the new year is here, meaning people are making resolutions and others are looking to exploit them.

This particular column, the first of the new year, has become something of a tradition to remind folks that setting goals is fantastic, but it’s important to know that there are scammers out there who want to cash in on these.

This happens in a lot of ways. Maybe you’re looking to eat healthier and exercise more. There are plenty of well-established websites and apps that can help track good habits, but just the same, there are ones that always seem to pop up at the start of January only to disappear once a payment is made. Remember, it’s important to check reviews and use Google to check the legitimacy of these sites.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, diet scams are the most common health care scams in the United States.

Even more directly devious are financial scams. Getting better with money is an extremely common New Year goal and scammers are all too aware of this. According to the FTC, banking scams made up more than 2 million of its fraud reports in 2021. This extends outward to financial tracking services and investment apps that turn out to be fake. In these cases, because the so-called services tie directly to your banking info, the scammers can get a heck of a lot more than just a quick payout.

The big takeaway here is to always do your research. When exploring a new website, poke around and look for red flags such as strange, sketchy advertisements, broken links and odd wording. Often, scammers build websites quickly knowing they are just going to take them down eventually, so things like spelling and grammatical errors can run wild at times.

Stay safe out there and have an excellent new year.

Visions of sugar plumbs — and sketchy app agreements | Scam of the Week

Fake Advent calendars, seriously | Scam of the Week

Oh Christmas tree | Scam of the Week

Scam of the Week generally runs every Tuesday. Readers are welcome to contact reporter Jake Hutchison to report scams and potential scams they have come in contact with by calling 828-1329 or via email at [email protected].