Last month, the National Retail Federation reported that consumers anticipate spending “an average of $1,007.24 during the holiday season this year, up 4.1 percent from the $967.13 they said they would spend last year,” according to a 2018 survey. An estimated 164 million people are planning to shop between tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, and Cyber Monday, November 26. [1,2,3]
The last two months of any given year accounted for 30.1% of annual retail sales in 2017. Big opportunity for businesses, traditional brick-and-mortar and online. Big opportunity for crime as well, again, online and off. “Some security firms are predicting an increase in credit card fraud of more than 40% this Christmas ….” [4,5]
To help put consumers in front of this, the Saline Police Department is hosting an expert-led Scam Presentation on Thursday, November 29 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at St Paul United Church of Christ. Admission is free to all who are interested, no advance reservation necessary to attend. [6,7,8,9]
Detective Jeremy Stempien of the Novi Police Department and Special Federal Deputy Marshal for the Southeast Michigan Financial Crimes Task Force will lead the presentation. He will approach the topic here from a much larger context, extending beyond consumer-initiated transactions, retail, and the holidays. [10]
During a widely covered presentation before an area Better Business Bureau group a little over two years ago, for example, he spoke about “schemes in which organized teams go into neighborhoods to try to steal the outgoing mail people leave for the postal carrier to pick up. Con artists are hoping to snag an envelope that contains a check that you’re sending to pay a bill. Then, they can engage in check fraud.
“The con artists can use information on your check to manufacture counterfeit checks that are later cashed by someone else or even deposited via an ATM in what’s known as a ‘card cracking’ scheme.” [11]
Online dating and sweepstakes and IRS scams are still around. But now there are credit card and debit card breaches that make consumers vulnerable to identity theft. Skimming devices “at ATM machines or point-of-sale machines at” store registers that “can capture personal information.” There are precautions that can be taken — but the public must be made aware of them.
“This is really one of the most important things that a Police Department can do,” Saline Police Chief Hart told Saline Journal in previewing this talk. “When the call comes in with a reported scam, that means someone has already been harmed in some way. No one wants that to happen.
“This is the time of year to talk about prevention, because more people have it in mind around the holidays.”
References
- National Retail Federation (home page).
- “Consumers will spend 4.1 percent more than last year during winter holidays” (October 24, 2018) National Retail Federation.
- “NRF survey says more than 164 million consumers plan to shop over five-day Thanksgiving weekend” Ana Serafin Smith (November 16, 2018) National Retail Federation.
- “Winter Holiday FAQ” National Retail Federation.
- “Tis the Season for Credit Card Fraud” Jeff Gitlen (October 29, 2018) LendEDU.
- “Police Department” Saline.
- Saline Police Department (Facebook Page).
- “Saline Police” Twitter.
- St Paul United Church of Christ (home page).
- “Police Department” City of Novi.
- “Scam phone calls can turn as ugly as political campaigns” Susan Tompor (July 23, 2016) Detroit Free Press.
- “10 Things You Can Do to Avoid Fraud” Federal Trade Commission: Consumer Information.
