The holiday checklist wouldn’t be complete without listing more than a few scams to avoid between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
Here are three to watch out for this season.
Millions of people will be flying over Thanksgiving or Christmas and strangely we are now being warned that scammers are sending fake emails pretending to be from TSA PreCheck. Unfortunately, you may not even realize you’ve been taken until you arrive at the airport, where you suddenly discover that you don’t qualify for a smoother pre-screening security check.
Ultimately you become disappointed and frustrated.
Even worse, the Transportation Security Administration will not issue refunds to applicants who attempt to enroll in TSA PreCheck or renew the service to expedite travel screening through security checkpoints if the consumer uses a fraudulent website.
Here’s how the scam works, according to a Federal Trade Commission alert: You may receive a fake TSA PreCheck email asking you to click a link. Doing so will take you to a scam website that looks official but is not legit.
The fake site may offer a way to pay to “enroll” or “renew” your TSA PreCheck. And this is how scammers get your money and your identity information.
The real deal: You will not pay an online application fee if you are applying for TSA PreCheck for the first time. Instead, you pay in person at a TSA enrollment center. First-time applicants are not even asked to provide payment information online.
These enrollment centers are located at airports, Office Depot stores, some Office Max stores, and elsewhere. See www.tsa.gov/precheck for enrollment center locations near you.
TSA is aware of private companies saying they can submit TSA PreCheck enrollment applications on behalf of applicants for a fee, said Jessica Mayle, a regional spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration.
But there’s no need to do that.
The TSA notes that there are now three enrollment providers, and each has slightly different enrollment and renewal costs. Visit www.tsa.gov/precheck again and browse to the new TSA PreCheck enrollment options to view information about Idemia, Telos, and Clear and their enrollment and renewal fees.
Costs for registration range from approximately $78 to $85.
“Not every registration provider is available at every location, so passengers can choose the one that is most convenient for them,” Mayle said.
The agency notes that it takes five minutes to complete an online application and schedule an in-person appointment, which includes a background check and fingerprinting at an enrollment center.
It may take three to five days before you receive your Known Traveler Number. But it can also take longer, in some cases even up to 60 days. You will receive an email or telephone notification with instructions on how to collect your KTN online.
Travelers find TSA PreCheck attractive and a way to take some of the hassle out of the screening process. Eligible travelers do not need to remove shoes, belts, light outerwear, laptops, electronics larger than a cell phone, or travel-sized liquids, aerosols, and gels from their carry-on luggage.
About 99% of TSA PreCheck passengers wait less than 10 minutes at airports across the country, according to the Transportation Security Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Mayle explained that families with children can also benefit. Children 12 years and younger may accompany an enrolled parent or guardian in the TSA PreCheck lanes without restriction.
Children ages 13 to 17 must have the TSA PreCheck logo on their boarding pass. To qualify for the TSA PreCheck logo on the boarding pass, the passenger between the ages of 13 and 17 must be on the same airline as a TSA PreCheck-eligible parent or guardian.
Children 17 and younger traveling alone or without an adult eligible for TSA PreCheck must apply for TSA PreCheck to access expedited screening.
According to the agency, no one is guaranteed expedited screening because TSA uses “unpredictable security measures, both visible and invisible, throughout the airport. All travelers are screened.”
The real TSA sends renewal reminder emails, but you want to proceed with caution and make sure email is the real deal too.
TSA PreCheck means you have a chance to shorten the time you spend waiting in line to go through security. But you don’t want to be in such a rush that you mindlessly click links in emails that you might receive out of the blue.
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The gigantic front garden skeletons make way for inflatable polar bears of more than 5 meters high in some front gardens. Or maybe a huge inflatable Santa Claus behind the wheel of a red convertible with a reindeer in the front seat will drive onto your lawn.
The scam: You may order one of these eye-catching lawn decorations after seeing a lot on social media or online. But once the box arrives, you may be looking at a much, much smaller version of what you thought you ordered.
The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning that scammers are offering super low prices on life-size decorations with incredible lights and other features. In some cases, you may receive nothing at all, not even a lump of coal.
According to a national BBB alert, one consumer lost $98 on one of these Halloween decorations deals. Somehow a package was delivered somewhere else, supposedly to a mailbox in a small town in North Carolina. But consumers noted that the decoration, as advertised, would never fit in a mailbox. “And the company will only refund once the goods have been returned,” the consumer said.
Cybercriminals continue to text and hide behind a familiar name, such as your bank. Often those fake texts will blow up your phone during the holidays.
Maybe it’s a text about a missed delivery. Maybe it’s a text message claiming to be from your bank and telling you that your account has been hacked. Maybe you just got a text about a fake job posting just as you’re wondering how you’re going to pay the vacation bills.
When it comes to bank fraud, some crooks may at some point try to convince you to transfer money to a so-called ‘safe account’. They may claim they work at the bank or a government agency, but they are only out to steal your savings.
The scammers know that we are all juggling to be cheerful. And they’re willing to bet that one day we’ll be so busy that they’ll completely overwhelm us.
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) @tomorrow.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bad deals on giant inflatable holiday items, TSA PreCheck and more scams
