Summer is right around the corner. With things reopening, kids getting out of school, and days lasting longer, this summer promises, we hope, some much-needed relaxation, adventure, and a chance to reconnect with family and friends.
Today, we’re kicking off our summer safety series to share some thoughts on ways to make your summer season as enjoyable and safe as possible. Unfortunately, scammers love summer, too, and they’re not taking any time off. So we want you to pack your sunscreen, but leave the SPFs (scams, phonies, and frauds) behind.
Throughout the week, we’ll share ideas for taking scam-free vacations by learning to avoid the latest travel and rental car scams, timeshare and customer review scams, and family emergency scams. And if you’ve spotted a scam this summer, we hope you’ll share it with your family and friends so they can protect themselves, too. We know that people who know about scams are more likely to be able to avoid them.
As you think about what your summer holds, here are some things to keep in mind.
- Never pay for “prize” vacations. No legitimate company will ask you to pay for a prize.
- Use a credit card, if possible, for your travel spending. This gives you more protection than paying by cash or debit card — and it may be easier to dispute unauthorized charges.
- Subscribe to Consumer Alerts to keep up to date on the latest scams. Then pass them on.
Sharing what you know will help protect someone you care about from a scam — so they can have a scam-free summer, too! Report any scams you’ve seen at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.