Better Business Bureau warns of social media scams around Veterans Day
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Better Business Bureau says social media scams tend to rise around holidays, and Veterans Day is no exception.
On Friday, Murry's -- a restaurant in Columbia -- posted on Facebook that some people nominating veterans for a gift card may have received messages from scammers. It warned people not to open messages from anyone posing to be Murry's.
Earlier in the week, the restaurant had posted saying followers should nominate a veteran to receive a $100 Murry's gift card. In the comments of that initial post, an account impersonating the restaurant replied to people saying they needed to click a link to claim their prize within 24 hours.
When the account page is opened, it uses the same name and images as Murry's restaurant, but there are no posts or no contact information available.
BBB Spokesperson Sydney Waters said most scam accounts won't have any other content except for a few stolen photos and possibly more scam links.
One commentor who received the reply said she clicked the profile and realized it was a scam when the profile page had zero followers. She said it was surprising a local business was the target of a scam account.
Another commenter said she recognized it as a scam but sent a screenshot to Murry's official Facebook page to make sure it was a scam and make sure the restaurant was aware. She said the first red flag for her was that the website in the comment was not Murry's website.
Another commentor said she recognized it as a scam, but expressed how its unfortunate it happened to a restaurant trying to do something nice for a veteran.
Waters said people should never click any unsolicited links on social media, because scammers can steal financial information as well as personal information.
"Anything on social media that you have to click and go to a separate portal and put your information in, that should be a huge red flag," Waters said.
ABC 17 News has reached out to Murry's.
Give safely this Veterans Day
If anyone is interested in supporting veterans and veteran organizations this holiday, Waters said it's important for people to do some research on the organization and learn how donations will be used.
"We do see many well-run, legitimate charities that are helping veterans, but then we have others that are failing to live up to their promises to assist veterans in need," Waters said.
The American Legion is one reputable organization, and commander of post #539 Elizabeth Hartman said people looking to help veterans in their community should make sure they are donating to a nonprofit, and look at the organizations 1099 form to see where money is going.
She said Veterans Day scams can be convincing because they pull on people's heartstrings.
"What better way to pull at American heartstrings than to point to the frequent deployments overseas right now, to point to the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform make every single day?" Hartman said.
Hartman said both veterans and those looking to support veterans need to be aware of scammers. She said to never provide social security number, dates served and birthdate, and to know a red flag is if someone is being routed from an unknown phone number to a crowdfunding source.
The BBB said to always donate directly to a source instead of crowdfund, when possible.
"As someone who would like to give money, if you're emotional about a topic, you're not really seeing all the red flags as you normally would," Waters said.
Other signs of a scam include if someone is rushing people into donating and if someone is asking people to donate via wire transfer or gift card.
Hartman said some reputable nonprofits she encourages people to support include:
- American Legion
- Veterans of Foreign Wars
- Disabled American Veterans
- The Fallen Outdoors
