BBB, FTC Warn Of Scammers Looking For Your Stimulus Checks

Whether you live in the Rockford area, or anywhere else across the country, there's every chance another stimulus check/payment will be coming your way in the near future. 

And, whenever a lot of money is "floating around," there are plenty of folks out there with designs on grabbing as much of it as they can regardless of how much need there is out there.

Luckily, organizations like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are doing their best to get the word out about potential stimulus check scammers and how they go about trying to steal your stimulus funds.

The BBB says that two of the more successful scammers tricks are trying to convince you that you have to pay some sort of fee in order to receive your check or direct deposit, and demanding you give up personal information in order to get the money. You don't have to do either one of those things in order to receive the stimulus money.

The BBB's "Scam Tracker" reports that they've determined (through people reporting scams to their website) that there's a sort of two-pronged approach involved in trying to con you out of your stimulus check.

One way they're trying to trick you is by sending you an email or text message.

BBB:

...instructing you to click a link to "request benefit payments." The link will take you to an application, which prompts you to enter information in order to "make sure you are getting all the payments owed to you."

Yeah, about that. Don't do it. This is simply an attempt at identification theft. All of your personal info isn't going to get you your money. It's going to give ID thieves information about you that they can exploit.

The other way is to just call you up and pretend to be from the government. It's virtually the same trick as an email or text. They try to get you to pay for getting your funds quicker, even offering you information about other payments you might be eligible for. As you might guess, for all its faults, the federal government doesn't call you on your cell with a great deal.

Click here to read the Better Business Bureau's full piece on stimulus check/COVID-19 scams.