Contact 13
Consumer Alert: Election & FBI scams
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- Election day is nine weeks away and candidates are hard at work campaigning and fundraising. But thieves are taking advantage, trying to get their own hands on your money. It's just one of the latest scams we're telling you about in our Contact 13 Consumer Alert.
"Now a days, scammers have become extremely savvy and take advantage of consumers in a variety of ways," says Katie Robison with the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB warns that crooks are trying to rip you off. All across the country they're posing as campaign workers, calling up voters and pretending to collect donations.
"It's a scam. Hang up. What they're trying to do is get either your bank account information or your social security number," says Katie.
Some scams also offer incentives like a free cruise or vacation in exchange for answering a short voter survey or public opinion poll.
"If you feel in your gut by answering five questions, it might be too good to be true, it probably is. Most of these are just trying to get your contact information, your bank account information," says Katie.
The BBB says never provide your personal financial information to an unsolicited caller. If you want to take a survey or contribute to a campaign, then you should call their office or visit their website.
"The safest way to donate or answer political questions is to do it yourself," says Katie.
And here's another one to watch out for. A valley man recently received an email claiming to be from the FBI. It says: "This is the final warning you are going to receive from this office..."
The letter claims the FBI is waiting to get a $98 payment from the recipient and threatens jail time unless the money is wired by tomorrow.
So Contact 13 called the FBI and we found out this is a scam. The FBI says it will never threaten to arrest someone over a payment.
In fact when you read the letter closely, you find it's actually filled with poor grammar. Like this line which reads: "all the crimes agencies have been contacted on this regards and we shall trace and arrest you if you disregard this instructions."
The FBI says if you've received a similar letter, they want to know about it.
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