TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Unfortunately, scams can happen to the best of us.
“We’ve found that 37 percent of people have lost personal information,” said VP of Operations Denise Groene from the Better Business Bureau. “Of that, 8 percent have stated that because they were a victim of scams, it created a financial hardship for them.”
This doesn’t include the personal hardship and unfortunate stigmas that come with this crime.
“And it’s important that if you do fall victim to a scam understand you are not alone,” said Groene. “These scammers have become more and more intuitive, and use the tactics against you. So education is always going to be the best line of defense.”
Educating yourself can be as simple as looking closer into a business, and checking to see how reputable they are. Sometimes, it’s not easy to recognize these crimes or to stop a scam once it has already happened. The Better Business Bureau has created a Scam Survival Toolkit for these cases.
This free, intuitive resource is a website that guides you on the next steps after you have been scammed. The toolkit provides you with information as to what scam you fell for. It then provides you with further resources and information, that can help holistically restore your financial, mental, and emotional health.
“At the end, it’s going to give you a recovery game plan that you can utilize to hopefully get your money back, or protect your information,” says Denise.
To access this tool, go to the BBB Scam Tracker website. If you’d rather contact the Better Business Bureau by phone, call them at (800) 649-6814.
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