CADILLAC--There’s a new scam going around that the Mecosta County Sheriff is warning people about.
The holidays are here and along with Christmas festivities comes the inevitable Grinch, cropping up from the depths of the internet with new ways to scam unsuspecting people.
Most of us have heard of the Grinch who stole Christmas, he shuffles in like a thief in the night stealing presents from unsuspecting kids and adults.
But have you heard of the Grinch who sends presents? Probably not, and before you dish out the benefit of the doubt, thinking a miraculous change of heart has happened, think again, it’s a scammer.
Here’s how it works.
“Scammers send products to people’s homes without a return address, so the people couldn’t return them, and they didn’t know who they came from,” said Better Business Bureau community manager Katie Grevious. “Scammers have added a very fun new twist now with the popularity of QR codes. So now scammers are including a sheet of paper that has a QR code in that box without an identifiable sender, so that people who are curious about who the package came from are going to scan that QR code.”
And if you scan that code, you could be in for trouble.
“They may have full access to your device. So any payment information, banking information, any identifiable information that’s stored on that device could then be compromised,” said Grevious. “So you want to make sure that you’re not scanning those links.”
The Mecosta County Sheriff is now warning residents of the scam.
They said the surprise packages are likely to come from Amazon or big companies that people are familiar with.
These tactics form a sense of familiarity without knowing who the sender is.
Here’s what you should do if one of these unexpected packages, with no return address, shows up at your door.
“If you do get one of these packages, you are well within your rights to keep whatever is in that box that is legal. That is okay, but you just don’t want to scan that QR code because you may be losing more than the value of whatever that item was,” said Grevious.
But if you do happen to scan the QR code on the mystery package, act fast, you’ll want to report it to your local police department, your banking and credit card providers and start monitoring your credit report for identity theft.