‘Tis the Season for Food, Family and Fake Holiday Text Messages

By Samuetta Hill Drew Usually with the onset of the Christmas holidays I would write a safety series on holiday decorations and food preparation. Where these topics are important and have some real safety measures which should be practiced, there is a need to address another equally as serious holiday safety threat in 2023. This safety threat is also real and very costly – fake holiday text message scams. Modern technology is helpful to us in our daily lives in a multiplicity of ways. Yet, this same helpful modern technology has enabled thieves to have direct access to us on a common device used constantly by adults as well as children – our cell phones. Therefore, our next safety series will explore how thieves are using our cell phone text message capabilities to scam people during the holidays and beyond. Unfortunately, holiday scams are especially dangerous because they can take numerous different forms. So, watch out for social media ads that lead you to fake online stores, fake delivery notification texts, fraudulent charities that steal your money, bogus deals on hard-to-find items or airline tickets and fake surveys, giveaways, and other phishing emails impersonating well-known brands. These are a few...