CLOVIS, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - You might just be trying to welcome Santa Claus to town, but instead scammers could be coming too.
"Go shopping and have fun this holiday season, but approach it with some skepticism," CEO of Help Desk Tech J. Colin Petersen said.
Petersen said fraud is common all year long, but during the holiday season, since more of us are shopping online, he wants all of us to be on the lookout for ways criminals are trying to steal our money and even our information.
"I think what people really don't understand is the degree to which fraud actually occurs online and how easy it is," he said.
The Federal Trade Commission reports that shoppers in the United States lost more than $12.5 billion in 2024 to fraud.
And new research shows AI is making it harder to tell between what's real and what's fake. Online protection company McAfee's Holiday Shopping 2025 fact sheet says 46% of Americans have already encountered AI-powered scams while shopping. The goal is to lure you to a counterfeit website and then steal your payment information, and then, in turn, your money.
"Personally, I'm putting an additional layer of a credit card in the way of your purchase, actually does make sense just to protect your own bank account. If you have that extra layer, then before the charge actually gets pulled from your checking account, you'll have some time to actually flag the charge and have it reversed," Petersen said.
Another scam credit card company, Visa, is warning about in its holiday threat report are package delivery scams. That's where text messages are sent, saying there's an issue with your delivery and you need to click a link to get it resolved. Experts say don't click the link, but instead go to the official website and enter your tracking number to see if there are any issues.
Clovis Police say you should always let them know if you've been a victim of a scam and that they will never ask you for money.
"Most of the scams we see are people trying to get money out of you for something that you would not normally send money for. They will say, 'Send us something, and then we'll send you something back.' That's a huge red flag," Sergeant Abby Padgett said.
Oftentimes, with email scams, the message will look legit, but the sender's name is misspelled so slightly, making it hard to tell. Experts warn to double-check the spelling before clicking anything sent over your email.
If you are buying a gift card, make sure you get it directly from the retailer and that it's been stored in a secure location to protect it from criminals looking to steal its barcode and drain the money.