Play Strong Defense When Buying College Football Tickets
As college football season opens, police in multiple states are warning fans to be on the defensive when buying tickets. Scammers know that getting tickets at some schools can be tough, with big stadiums selling out months in advance. So, they set up fake websites and use social media or messaging groups to lure fans with offers of scarce discount tickets.
The University of Iowa Police Department, noting that the Hawkeyes’ season opener was sold out, warned fans to be wary of buying football tickets through social media sites or message apps. It advised students to buy tickets only through the university athletic ticket office or its official resale partner. “The excitement of Hawkeye athletics should never come at the expense of your hard-earned money or personal safety,” the police declared. “Scammers often create fake profiles and use stolen or fraudulent photos to advertise tickets and merchandise that do not exist.” The university police cautioned students not to give sensitive information to strangers who are attempting to sell tickets, noting that they may be trying to steal their identity. The police said scammers often ask for payment through cryptocurrency, gift cards, or wire transfers, offering tickets at prices that seem “too good to be true.”
Virginia Tech’s Police Department also alerted its student body to football ticket scams. The scammers in Virginia were posing as students using photos of a “Hokie passport” – the Virginia Tech student ID – and offering tickets on unofficial social media groups, such as those set up for the Class of 2027. One clue that the tickets were phony: they could be printed. Most athletic event tickets are electronic.
One Penn State parent posted on the Penn State Parents Class of 2030 Facebook page that she got scammed in August. “FYI, beware of scammers selling football tickets in Facebook groups,” she wrote. “Despite all reasonable safety precautions I took, I was scammed today. All of the groups that say were “verified sellers” were completely useless or working with the scammer. Lesson learned here for a mama trying to get student tickets for her son.”
Scammers are Cloning a Popular Health Care App
Hospital and law enforcement officials have warned the public that scammers are pretending to represent the widely used health care app MyChart in a bid to capture personal information from older adults. Forty-one health care systems across the United States have reported the phishing scam, in which deceptive emails and text messages offer prizes like “Senior Health Package” and “MyChart Medical Kit,” according to Becker’s Hospital Review, a publication for hospital and health system executives. Fraudsters use the supposed giveaways to lure their targets onto malicious websites where personal data can be stolen. The Cleveland Clinic, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, Boston Medical Center, Mt. Sinai Health System in New York City, and Tampa General Hospital are among the institutions that have reported the scam.
MyChart is a free patient portal that enables consumers to review their health records and communicate with their doctors. It reportedly serves 300 million health care consumers worldwide and is owned by Epic Systems of Verona, Wisconsin. Several weeks before the recent reports, Trevor Berceau, a MyChart director, warned of the phishing fraud: “We’ve seen an uptick in scammers trying to trick patients by using the MyChart name or logo to make emails, text messages, phone calls, and websites look official,” he posted. “Some might try to steal your login information or promise free gifts if you enter payment details.”
In a separate posting, MyChart officials advised consumers to follow certain principles to avoid becoming victims of these scams. Their recommendations include:
- Examine an email address carefully. Fake emails that claim to be from MyChart often have misspellings and typos. By using MyChart’s search tool on this page, you can determine if the email you received comes from a legitimate address.
- If you’re still not sure, call the legitimate number for your health care provider. Someone there can confirm if a communication is phony or real.
- Protect your personal information. This includes your MyChart email address and login. No MyChart employees will ask you to reveal this information by phone, text, or email.
- Don’t be enticed by “free” gifts. MyChart does not give away prizes as a way to get patients to reveal information or take actions online.
- Don’t accept requests to run commands on your computer. If someone claims to be from MyChart and asks you to “verify,” “fix,” or “unlock” your account, this is a scam.
Children’s Identities Require Protection, Too
Although seniors are often targeted, more than 1 million children are victims of identity theft and fraud each year. Families lose hundreds of millions of dollars when this happens, experts estimate. The Experian credit reporting agency years ago cited estimates that such fraud-related losses totaled $2.6 billion. “Children are prime targets for identity thieves because their credit histories are clean slates and a criminal can possibly use a child’s information over a long period of time without being detected,” the company noted. And as more children and teens participate in social media and start using credit cards, opportunities for scammers only increase.
These dangers may be greatest for younger children who go online without parental supervision. Gaming and social apps that enable interaction with strangers pose extreme risks and can be a “perfect storm” for child identity theft, according to the consumer website SafeHome.org.
Kids’ behavior is not the only risk. Parents should make sure they do not expose their children’s personal data to scammers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises parents not to provide their child’s full Social Security number on school forms unless it is absolutely necessary. Similarly, the FTC urges parents to make sure the data on children’s medical bills stays private.
Parents are advised to take three main steps if they suspect their child’s identity has been captured by a criminal:
- Shut down the affected accounts. Request confirmation that your child will not be held responsible for any losses, Contact the three main credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and ask them to delete any problematic accounts from your child’s credit report.
- Freeze the child’s credit report. This may prevent a scammer from opening new accounts in the stolen name. Be aware that children who have reached age 16 have the right to undo a credit freeze.
- Report the identity theft. Go to https://www.identitytheft.gov/ and be prepared to provide details.
And remember that EverSafe fraud monitoring covers family members of any age. Parents can receive alerts for their baby’s or child’s personal identifying information if it’s found on the Dark Web. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
