We all think we are too smart to get scammed, but the Houston Better Business Bureau says thieves were especially tricky this year.
Here's the list of the top scams for 2016 and information from the BBB:
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Reports to BBB Scam Tracker in 2016 confirmed that tax scams are still the top scam, despite a huge drop in reports after a September police raid in Mumbai, India. The list was compiled based on more than 30,000 scam reports filed by consumers on bbb.org/scamtracker, a free interactive online tool launched last year by the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust. Not all of those consumers lost money, as many recognized the scam before being victimized but reported it anyway to help warn others.
The top three scams on the 2016 list - tax scams, debt collection scams, and sweepstakes/prizes/gifts scams - were the same as in 2015. New to the top ten are online purchase scams (#4) and phishing scams (#10). Online purchase scams were common in 2015 as well, but this scam type was not added as a BBB Scam Tracker category until 2016. Employment scams (#5) are also new to the top ten, but only because work-from-home scams, previously a separate category, were included. Another change was the drop of tech support scams from #4 last year to #7 this year.
Tax Scams - 25% of reported scams
Debt Collections
Sweepstakes/Prizes/Gifts
Online Purchase
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Employment
Government Grants
Tach Support
Advance Fee Loan
Fake Check/Money Order
Phishing
KTRK