The holiday season often includes gift-giving to loved ones and charitable causes, but authorities say the threat of scammers seeking to trick victims into giving them large sums of money and personal information persists year-round.
Here are some common scams and how to protect yourself from them:
“Pig butchering”
“Pig butchering” refers to several kinds of scams where perpetrators slowly and methodically gain their victims’ trust, then steal as much money from them as possible. The name comes from a Chinese phrase, likening victims to pigs being fattened for slaughter.
Wired magazine reported that some people have taken issue with the term “pig butchering,” saying that it dehumanizes victims and shames them for being deceived. Intergovernmental law enforcement organization Interpol said that people should use more straightforward names instead, like “romance baiting” or “investment scams.”
Scammers reach out to numerous potential victims, then form a rapport with the people who respond to them. Eventually, they convince their victims to send them money, usually as cryptocurrency, saying that it’s for a potentially lucrative investment. According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, many of these kinds of scams are perpetuated in Southeast Asia, where human trafficking victims are held in compounds and forced to trick victims through texting and fake financial websites.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office stated recently that they would be prosecuting two people on suspicion of trying to steal more than $500,000 from an 66-year-old man in San Jose.
According to their press release, the scammers posed as an investment banker named “Aunt Amelia” on Facebook and tried to trick the man into “investing” money into cybercurrency. The man sent $170,000 at first. When the suspects asked for almost $348,000 more, he reported them to the district attorney’s office. Investigators then met the two suspects at an unspecified location in San Jose and arrested them.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office advised people to be careful when responding to unknown texts and that if they feel like they are getting scammed or have been scammed, they should call their local law enforcement agency and ask to speak to the financial crimes investigator and report it to the FBI.
Travel scams
The BBC reported that safety officers with the travel site Booking.com said that they estimated a 500% to 900% increase in AI-generated scams over an 18-month period.
The scams include fake airline and hotel booking websites, AI chatbots offering fake travel deals, phishing emails and text messages, AI-generated airline reviews and fake travel itineraries and AI-generated images.
To protect yourself from these kinds of scams, experts said to pay attention to the small details in these offers, like suspicious URLs and email addresses and small spelling errors in ads, or subtle inconsistencies in photos, like missing or mismatched details, unnatural lighting or blurry areas. They also advised people to pay attention to patterns in reviews, like unusually high numbers of extremely positive reviews that were posted in a short amount of time.
They also warned people to not click on suspicious links or provide sensitive information through unsolicited emails and texts. When in doubt about a travel offer, people should verify its details directly with the airline, hotel and travel agency listed.
Utility scams
According to a press release by Pacific Gas & Electric, their customers lost more than $334,000 from scams in 2024 alone. These scams occurred over the phone, online or in-person, with fraudsters demanding people pay to prevent immediate disconnection of service.
Typical signs of this kind of scam include the threat of disconnection of service, request for immediate payment, request for payment through prepaid cards and refund or rebate offers.
“PG&E will not contact you for the first time within one hour of service disconnection, and we will NEVER request payment by a pre-paid debit card or via online payment services like Zelle or Venmo,” said Jake Zigelman, PG&E’s Vice President for the Bay Area Region.
The company stated that people with delinquent PG&E accounts will be contacted in advance of disconnection, typically by mail with their monthly bill. The press release advised people that if they are threatened with immediate disconnection or shutoff without prior notification, they should hang up the phone, shut the door or delete emails and report the incident to PG&E at 1-833-500-SCAM. They also advised customers to sign up for an online account to safeguard their account.
Law enforcement scams
Scammers are also posing as law enforcement in two different scams. One of them is false jury calls.
The Superior Court of Alameda County said that scammers are impersonating court personnel or law enforcement to obtain personal and financial information from residents by claiming they missed their jury duty date or owe the court a fee for a missed appearance.
The Santa Clara County Superior Court said that these scammers may also wield fake badge numbers or photoshopped images of badges to trick residents.
The courts advised people to not provide any personal or financial information to anyone claiming to be a court official over the phone. They also advised residents to be cautious of unsolicited phone calls and report any calls requesting sensitive information to their local law enforcement. They also said that residents can call the court independently to verify if a call actually came from the court.
“To be clear, the Superior Court of Alameda County will never contact a resident over the phone to seek personal or financial information and California law does not permit residents to pay a fine in lieu of jury service,” said a press release by the Superior Court of Alameda County.
Another scam involving law enforcement is fraudulent calls from people claiming to be police. Police departments in Emeryville, Martinez and Berkeley warned residents of scam calls imitating local phone numbers and using threats of arrest, outstanding warrants or even claiming that you or your family committed a crime that requires a payment.
The police departments said that police would never call residents and demand money over the phone or ask for personal information. They advised residents who received calls like this to not provide any personal or financial information, hang up immediately and report the incident to their local police department.
