Millions of people view Costco as a shopping paradise, but that doesn’t make it immune to the scams that plague the rest of the world.
In fact, at its website, Costco lists 21 scams that currently are making the rounds — which is up from 13 at this time last year.
The list of nefarious schemes is as follows:
- Fraudulent cart notification
- Fraudulent autumn giveaway email
- Fraudulent Facebook offer
- Fraudulent survey text
- Fraudulent satisfaction survey
- Fraudulent Facebook post
- Fraudulent survey
- Texts regarding a “loyalty reward”
- Overcharge reimbursement texts
- Surveys with exclusive offers
- Free television
- Coronavirus stimulus
- Exclusive giveaway
- Fake interview confirmation
- Fraudulent executive rewards redemption
- Citi rewards direct deposit scam
- Redeem your gift card scam
- Supermarket customer sweepstakes raffle draw
- Text survey
- USPS scam
- Letter survey
If you go the Costco website, you can see visual examples of what the scams look like when they are sent in messages.
The messages can arrive via emails, texts and Facebook posts. Costco says if you get any messages centering on the themes listed above, you should not click on any links in the messages.
Also, do not provide any personal information to the entity that sent the messages.
Unfortunately, scams are nothing new. As Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson has noted, we all fall victim to some type of rip-off at one time or another:
“These experiences can be costly and, frankly, kind of humiliating. You find yourself wondering why you didn’t see it coming.”
The good news is that simply being aware of your very human tendency to fall for fraudsters actually can help to protect you from them. Stacy offers some great tips for staying safe in “10 Golden Rules to Avoid Getting Scammed.”
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