Heads Up Minnesota! There’s Another Holiday Scam To Know About

Ahh, the Holidays. The lights, the decorations, the Christmas spirit, the scammers. (Sound Effect of a record scratching), The Scammers? 

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Tis the season for those people who will spend twice as much energy trying to scam you out of your money as they would spend working a legitimate job. But it’s the extra effort the scammers put in that fool's people year in and year out. 

Kim Komando, the consumer technology expert and radio host, sent out an email to those who subscribe to her newsletter, which I do, that there is a fairly elaborate scam out there that looks like a legit email from PayPal.  

The scam is set up like this, you’ll get an email from PayPal saying you owe money for a purchase or there was a technical problem that requires you to authorize more money in your PayPal account.  

What makes this look so real is that PayPal allows anyone with an account to send an invoice, and those who are looking to steal your money have gotten really good at making their messages seem authentic.  

Keep in mind, PayPal will not send you an invoice at random for something you didn’t order or authorize. Also remember you can check the sender's email and history on PayPal to help you determine if this is something you’ve forgotten about or the person sending you this is up to something nefarious.  

Kim Komando urges you to NOT call any of the numbers that are included in the email you get, as they are likely not real either. Scammers have developed ways to fool you once they get you on the phone. 

The best advice is to contact PayPal's customer support number which has operators working from 6am to 6pm pacific time. That number is 1-888-221-1161.