NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. — The Niagara County Sheriff's Office is warning residents about a new scam that's going around.
In a recent Facebook post, the sheriff's office said residents in Niagara County have recently fallen victim to the "Geek Squad subscription scam." With this scam, the victim gets sent a subscription renewal notice claiming to be from Geek Squad. The scammer asks for the victims to call the provided number and asks for sensitive information, such as the victim's credit card number and other personal information.
Unsure if the email or text message you received is legitimate or fraudulent? The sheriff's office has a few tips for identifying phishing emails and/or texts:
- The scammers are using a Gmail account or another common domain instead of using a Best Buy email address
- The email and/or text may contain odd grammatical problems. The example they provided was 'Writing this mail' instead of 'email'
- Phone numbers that do not match Best Buy’s service lines. You can look this up by using a search engine such as Google.
The sheriff's office is advising people to be alert for frauds such as this during the holiday season. According to the Niagara County Sheriff's Office, victims in Niagara County have lost over $22,000 and counting due to this scam.
In the Facebook post the sheriff's office said in part, "Please be on alert for this fraud and all other phishing scams, especially during the busy online holiday shopping season!"