These days who is not afraid of being scammed. Every time you receive a phone call from a number you don't recognize, a suspicious letter in the mail that seems to good to be true, or how about one of those special offer emails from a company you've never done business with. When any of those show up, chances are you instantly think scam right? At least I do anyway.

With the threat of being scammed so prevalent in today's society, the Better Business Bureau, has developed a new website that will allow you to stay one step ahead of the scammers.

The new site shows people what sort of scams are happening across the country, and where are these calls, emails and letters being sent to.

Jessie Schmidt, State Director for the Better Business Bureau in South Dakota says, "You can see we just have a few (scams) in South Dakota."

But just because there may not be a lot of scams happening in South Dakota at the moment, doesn't mean they aren't there.

On Tuesday, November 10, there were about 6,800 scams that had been populated, by the next morning there were already over seven thousand.

That's where the new Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker website comes in. It's the latest way to combat scammers. The website allows users to zoom into where they live and see details about scams in the area like when they took place and how much money was lost.

According to Schmidt, "Now we have the ability that we can just put all that information in there and, really, at the drop of a hat, have some great data to share."

Information asked for on the new site will also help the Better Business Bureau assist those who call them about being victims. And that data comes from scamming victims.

Schmidt says some of the things asked include; "Did you lose money, yes or no? Then you just give some information about the scam and you submit it."

This new website should give consumers the ability to feel a little more secure with their money with the holidays right around the corner and the potential for even more scamming threats to occur.

One thing you should watch out for in our area, is scammers pretending to be from the IRS saying you owe a debt. That is one of the biggest scams in South Dakota according to Schmidt.

You can visit the new Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker site here.

Source: KDLT TV

 

 

 

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