Holiday scams do not wait for December. They start in early November, when order confirmations, delivery notices, travel plans and charity appeals all begin to fill your phone and your inbox at once. That flood is the cover. When you expect ten packages, one fake delivery text looks ordinary. The Federal Trade Commission said in its October 2026 report to Congress that adults age 60 and older reported losing more than $3 billion to fraud in 2025, up from about $2.4 billion the year before. The season ahead is when a large share of that damage gets done, and one simple question stops most of it.
Holiday Scams Start With How They Want to Be Paid
Forget the costume and look at the payment request, because the costume changes weekly and the payment request almost never does. A caller, a text or a polished website can pretend to be a store, a charity, a delivery company or even a police officer. What gives the game away is the method they insist on. Gift card numbers sent by photo. A wire sent today. Crypto sent to an address they give you. Cash handed to a courier who comes to your door. The Federal Trade Commission puts its rule in five plain words: gift cards are for gifts. No real store, agency or charity needs you to pay a bill, a fine or a donation that way.
The scale behind that rule is not small. The FBI warned in September that people impersonating police and other officials were tied to nearly 61,000 complaints and more than $1.6 billion in losses between January 2025 and July 2026, and it stressed that law enforcement will never request payment by prepaid card, crypto or courier. Government impersonators alone were behind $448 million in reported losses by older adults in 2025. So treat the payment method as the verdict. If the only ways to pay are hard to trace and impossible to reverse, you are looking at a theft in progress. Our Scam Proofing hub keeps this payment check beside the other family protection rules we publish.
The Delivery Text and the Fake Store
The most common seasonal play starts with a purchase you actually made. A text says a package missed its delivery, a fee is due, or a hold sits on your order, and a link invites you to fix it now. The page behind that link copies a real carrier, collects your card, and sometimes enrolls you in a quiet recurring charge. The defense is boring and it works: never use the link in the message. Open the retailer or carrier app yourself, or type the address you already know, and check the order there. A real delivery problem will still be visible in your real account.
Fake stores run the same trick at larger scale. Online purchase scams were the most reported scam type in the Better Business Bureau 2025 Scam Tracker, at 28.4 percent of reports, and 89.3 percent of those reports involved money lost. The FBI logged 56,478 complaints in 2025 about goods paid for and never arrived, with $503 million in reported losses. Watch for prices far below every other seller and a store with no street address and no phone number. Pay with a credit card, because its dispute rights give you a way back that a payment app often does not, a lesson we covered in our guide to the Zelle scam and fake bank fraud alerts.
Gift Cards, Charity Appeals and the Family Emergency Call
Three more plays share the same season. The first is the drained gift card. Scammers copy numbers from cards on store racks, wait for a buyer to load money, and empty the balance before the gift is given. Buy cards kept behind a counter when you can, inspect the packaging for tampering, and keep the receipt until the card has been spent. The second play is the fake charity. Giving rises in November and December, and so do appeals built on a sound alike name and a story pulled from the news. Federal guidance is direct: never donate to anyone who insists on cash, gift cards, a wire or crypto only, and reach the charity through a number or site you found yourself.
The third play is the family emergency call, and the holidays raise its odds because relatives travel and schedules scatter. A voice that sounds like your grandchild says there has been an accident or an arrest, begs you to tell no one, and asks for bail money at once. As our guide to the AI voice scam explained, a few seconds of public audio can clone a familiar voice, so recognition proves nothing. Hang up and call that person on the number saved in your phone. A real emergency survives ten minutes of checking. Only a script collapses under it. Older readers should also watch health coverage pitches in this same season, because the Medicare scam scripts run hardest while open enrollment stays open through December 7.
What to Do Before You Pay Anyone This Season
Set these rules now, while no one is pressuring you, and share them with the older adults in your family before the busiest shopping weeks arrive.
- Ask how they want to be paid before you ask anything else, and stop if the answer is gift cards, a wire, crypto or cash to a courier.
- Leave every link inside a surprise text or email alone, and go to the store, carrier, bank or charity through an address or app you already trust.
- Call back on a saved number whenever a message claims a family emergency, a frozen account or a legal problem, no matter how real the voice sounds.
- Pay online with a credit card rather than a payment app or debit card, so a dispute path exists if the goods never arrive.
- Slow the moment down on purpose, because urgency and secrecy are the two tools every one of these scripts needs to work.
If Money Already Left Your Account
Speed matters more than embarrassment. Call your bank or card issuer first and say the word fraud, because a fast report can sometimes freeze a transfer or support a dispute. Keep the texts, receipts, card numbers and names the caller used. Report the loss to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI at ic3.gov, and tell a family member the same day. Silence protects only the people who took the money, and reporting quickly is how some victims get part of it back.
Here is the usable takeaway to carry into the season: decide your rules today, tell your family what they are, and let any stranger who wants fast and untraceable payment hear the word no. Then put the same calm system to work on the rest of your money. Download the free ebook Unlocking Financial Freedom for practical checklists that help you protect what you have and grow what comes next.
