As Christmas approaches, ways to save time look better however some could be scams.
Michelle Tabler with the Better Business Bureau said one thing to be wary of is fake charities.
Tabler: “When somebody’s calling to solicit you on the telephone you’ve got to be really careful, we don’t get the door to door as much as they do down in the Lower 48 but we do get the phone calls. You might make it a practice to say that you never donate directly over the phone to a company or a charity that you never called and you want to do your research and it’s OK to do that.”
Other scams include holiday surveys where popular retailers are imitated through fake links, fake coupons that that request personal information, and stolen gift cards or counterfit gifts.
Tabler recommends only buying gift cards and “must have” gifts through reputable retailers.
Another scam popular around the holidays is the “stranded grandkids” scheme.
Tabler: “Scammers tend to call seniors early in the morning or late at night, when they’re less cognizant and they say hi Grandma, it’s me, they don’t necessarily say a name but in some cases either through social media or through genealogical, like Ancestry.com, they actually have the names of the grandchildren and will say Hi Grandma, it’s me Timmy, or something like that and they basically say I’ve been arrested, I’m in trouble, I’m in a foreign country, I’m in the U.S. I’m in the hospital I’ve been in a car accident, please don’t call mom and dad, could you please just wire me the money.”
For a full list of scams to be wary of click here.