Summer brings more than heat

Summer is supposed to be a time for, what’s the old expression? Oh, yeah, fun in the sun.

We certainly have an abundance of sun in Texas, nothing new about that. Try walking to the mailbox barefooted in the middle of the day if you need proof.

However, having fun — especially in the vacation sense — often requires money. And if scammers have their way, we’ll be left looking at pics of places we’ll now never get to while they add to their pile of pilfered profits.

This summer’s most dangerous scams target travelers and homeowners seeking deals. Major schemes include fake airline customer service numbers, fraudulent vacation rentals, fake concert tickets, and more.

Imagine you buy tickets to see your favorite artist. You get to the concert venue and are turned away because your tickets aren’t legitimate.

And this is after you had to drive to that city instead of fly because the fake airline customer service ripped you off — and you had to sleep in your car because the vacation cabin you thought you rented ended up being a vacant lot.

Heck, there’s even an HVAC repair scam going on. A stranger knocks on your door with a promise to fix your air-conditioning unit for cheap. 

Anyone who has ever had their AC go out for five minutes on a July or August day in Texas knows we’d pay anything for it to get fixed pronto. Imagine how hot you’d be, though, if a few hours later it’s not only not fixed, but worse than before — and now you don’t have the money to call a legitimate repair person.

Scammers, vile as they are, are clever. They work to stay one step ahead of folks — particularly desperate folks.

Let’s go back to concerts, traveling and such, which seems to be more their focus of late. For whatever reason, time got away and now you’re frantically trying to get a ticket, flight, or place to stay, or your budget keeps tightening but you still need to get away.

You turn to what appears to be an incredible bargain. There’s an old expression that still stands the rest of time, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Believe me, it’s worth the extra time and money spent to make sure what you are getting is actually the real thing.

Scammers don’t care about age or even a person’s state of health, physically or mentally. In fact, the worse off a person is, the better for scammers.

I myself nearly fell victim to a scammer last year. I received an email from someone who claimed to be at the University of Southern California asking for my help on a writing project. They offered to pay me $2,600.

Great money for something that was definitely in my wheelhouse. We even conversed numerous times via email before starting the project, with them even suggesting they’d fly me out to Los Angeles.

Suspicious after I found no such person by that name employed by USC, I held off on starting the project and told them I had to be paid half up front to consider going any further. They sent a check for not only that amount, but $800 more than the original agreement.

Then came another email saying they overpaid me. Would I please deposit the check and return the $800 in excess?

Of course, their plan was to cancel the original check, take the $800, and likely get my bank information. While the latter would certainly not help them much if they were looking for anything more than lunch money, who except for Elon Musk can just willy nilly give away almost a thousand dollars these days?

I did not. Instead I contacted authorities. Not sure if they got busted or moved on to the next would-be sucker — I hope the former happened.

Many elderly people are falling victim to scammers, often taking their life savings. I’m pretty sure there is a special place waiting in the next life for those (insert whatever horrible name you want to call them here), and they might try to call an AC repair person, but good luck.

The IRS will never initiate contact with you by email, text message, or social media, but scammers will pretend to be the IRS — a scam that seems to be particularly targeted toward the elderly. If you get a call claiming such, hang up immediately.

If the IRS is legitimately trying to reach you, it will be through good ol’ fashioned USPS.

And speaking of phone calls, do not stay on the phone very long if something seems strange. Never say “hello” immediately. If you answer an unknown call, remain completely silent for the first three to five seconds. Robots usually hang up if they don’t hear an immediate human voice.

I am not, by any means, an expert on avoiding scammers. But I have come to realize that the simplest way to get around them is to only use legitimate company sites and apps, check out reviews (real ones), and only deal with trusted and vetted resellers and venues.

And remember, the police are just a phone call away.

If something seems fishy, do not give in to temptation. Trust me, no one is giving you a trip to Australia for $100 or an Alaskan cruise for $25.

Summer is indeed a time to have fun. Make it even more enjoyable by ruining a scammer’s day.