DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The holidays are here, and experts are warning about schemers targeting people on social media.
Channel 2’s Cory James spoke with a woman who says she was tricked out of hundreds of dollars on a popular neighborhood app.
“I have gotten a lot of help from the community,” said Jazmin Saenz.
She says she found that community on popular social media app Nextdoor.
The DeKalb County woman, who is struggling to make ends meet, said over the last couple of months people on the app have bought her groceries and given her rides.
“They just wanted to help,” Saenz said.
But she said that kindness took a turn for the worst when she posted needing help with November’s rent.
According to Saenz, a woman posted that she ran a nonprofit that had funds it needed to use before the end of the year.
“We started talking right away. She had said $250, you know, to basically start your profile and your case, and that way we can pay November’s rent,” Saenz said.
She said days after transferring the money, she started getting the runaround.
“I finally just decide to call my leasing office, and she was like, ‘No, we haven’t received anything,” Saenz said.
“Unfortunately, this is the time of the year where we really see scammer uptick their efforts to take advantage of people,” said Miranda Margowsky, who works with Financial Technology Association.
It runs the “Smarter than Scams” campaign.
She says it’s important to pause before you pay, verify the person or organization and take note of anything sounding too good to be true.
“It’s important to only give money to people you know and trust,” Margowsky said.
And Saenz says she wishes she paid attention to one other sign that signaled something was wrong.
“She was like, ‘I have been having a really hard time with Nextdoor. They keep taking my post down. This is my third profile, and I’m just trying to help people.’ But of course, none of it was true,’” Saenz said.
And when it comes to schemers, Nextdoor says it will remove the content and restrict their access.
The platform encourages you to report scams and suspicious communications to the Federal Trade Commission.
Saenz says she also filed a police report about what happened.
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