Protect Yourself and Others from Scams

A new year brings new scams, or retries of existing scams. The more you know about scams the more protected you can keep yourself and loved ones. In general, make it a policy to never say yes or provide personal information to any caller, email, text or visitor that you did not contact yourself and are confident in. Request offers in writing, find the authoritative phone number of the company to ask if a person or offer is legitimately associated with them, and keep your Social Security, Medicare and bank account numbers private. Multiple sites have tips and information about in-person, phone and virtual scams making the rounds:

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel site advises on avoiding scams and nuisance calls.

The AARP website details the top seven scams to watch out for in 2023.

The Better Business Bureau website offers 10 steps to avoid scams.