Women more likely to be victims of scammers, BBB warns, offers advice

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated than ever, and women are statistically slightly more likely to fall prey to a scammer — although men tend to lose more money when they fall victim, said Whitney Quick, regional director of the Better Business Bureau in Cape Girardeau.

Quick spoke as part of a Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce program to better equip women to navigate potential pitfalls, though she said the principles apply to anyone, Thursday at Rosati’s Pizza in Cape Girardeau.

The top means of contact scammers use is by phone, Quick said.

“If you don’t know the number, don’t answer,” she said, adding she’s been called by her own phone number before, and that was a scammer — not, she quipped, herself calling from the future.

Online, a good first step is to check the URL, Quick said: If a URL begins with “https,” that “s” stands for “secure.”

Employment scams are prevalent in the region, Quick said.

These include work-from-home, “be your own boss” situations, Quick said, and often appear as data entry or secret-shopper jobs.

“Legitimate jobs don’t charge applicants,” Quick said.

It’s also important to protect personal information, she said, and to research the company online rather than follow links in emails.

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said Kim Voelker, chamber vice president.

Quick said she herself fell prey to a scam when she made an online purchase: 10 tubes of mascara for $50, which seemed like a great deal, until they arrived, and instead of mascara, the tubes contained ink.

“It smelled like broken pens,” Quick said.

Online boutiques could have issues, Quick said, adding it’s important to check the site’s return policy, to shop with credit cards and to check the company out online by searching for “company name BBB.”

Quick said the No. 1 scam in the Midwest is the romance scam, where the scammers pose as a romantic interest who, eventually, asks for money — for airfare, transportation or an emergency.

“Do not send money to strangers,” Quick said. “If you don’t know the person, don’t send money.”

Another good practice is to reverse image search, Quick said, by copying an image and pasting it into an internet browser’s search bar. That can help identify whether a picture has been used elsewhere online.

Pets listed for sale can also be fake, Quick said, so anyone looking to purchase a pet should not buy it without seeing it.

The reverse image search is a good idea here too, she said. Researching typical breed prices is a good step too.

As for businesses, an important scam to watch out for is a scammer impersonating a senior member of the company, asking another member of a company to send money. That worker, not knowing they’re sending money to a scammer, sends the money, often by wire transfer or through gift cards or other untraceable method. Recovering that money is often difficult or impossible, Quick said.

To prevent this, employers can train employees to spot suspicious activity.

Just because an email appears to be from the company’s CEO, for instance, it could be a scammer who’s opened an email account and is using the name, so it’s important to check the email address itself, not just the displayed name.

Having a system in place to verify invoices is another way to thwart potential scammers who submit counterfeit invoices.

Scammers might also pose as vendors requesting tax information or W-2 forms, Quick said.

A red flag is pushy behavior, or high-pressure sales tactics, Quick said.

Quick said many scammers operate out of Nigeria, Ghana and Eastern Europe, though they may live elsewhere.

BBB’s Scam Tracker at www.bbb.org allows people to search for reports of scams, or report one, Quick said.

“If you think you’ve been scammed, report it to us,” Quick said. “It really helps.”