Bonus: AARP's Guide to Avoiding Holiday Scams
The Perfect Scam
AARP
4.5 • 980 Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amy Nofziger, Sr. Director of Victim Support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network™, stops by The Perfect Scam to discuss some new variations on old scams and the tactics criminals are using to exploit our vulnerabilities during this busy time of year. Learn what you should never do if you receive a mysterious package and why you should always hang on to those little receipts that come with your gift card purchases. Amy also shares the latest AARP research on holiday scams.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the perfect scam. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. And this week we have a very special |
| 0:08.0 | episode for you. It's the end of the year. And while we always want you to have your guard up against |
| 0:14.4 | scams, this time of year, it's particularly important. With all the hustle and bustle in online shopping and travel, |
| 0:23.7 | well, what cybersecurity people call our attack footprint is much bigger. |
| 0:29.3 | There are so many more moments of vulnerability. |
| 0:33.1 | So I am delighted to have Amy Knafsiger here with us. |
| 0:36.8 | She's a frequent perfect scam guest. She's a frequent, perfect scam guest. |
| 0:39.2 | She's a frequent guest on your televisions. |
| 0:41.7 | You've probably seen her lots of times. |
| 0:43.8 | She is AARP's Director of Victim Support for the Fraudwatch Network. |
| 0:48.5 | She's the one who coordinates the Fraud Watch Network helpline |
| 0:51.2 | with all those great volunteers who help people, and we'll talk about |
| 0:55.2 | that again at the end of the episode. But today, Amy is here to talk about end-of-year scams, |
| 1:01.4 | holiday scams, and several other new variations on old scams that have come into the fraud-watch |
| 1:07.5 | network. She's also got some fresh data out of new research AARP has concluded. |
| 1:17.9 | So Amy, thank you so much for coming back on the perfect scam. |
| 1:20.9 | Thanks for having me, Bob. It's always a pleasure to be on your show. |
| 1:23.9 | So, you know, there are scams that are really common that everybody needs to look out for, and then there are scams that are unique and make for good headlines. We're going to talk about a few things that are sort of in between. Maybe these are not scams necessarily that everyone is going to see, but they're happening. And it does show the depth of the crimes that are out there. So for the holiday season, maybe some people are out there hoping that they're |
| 1:44.7 | going to receive a diamond or they're looking to buy a diamond for the holiday season. But some people |
| 1:49.2 | are receiving diamonds in the mail they didn't expect. What's going on there, Amy? Yes. And let's just |
| 1:56.1 | be 100% clear. These are not real diamonds. So don't think you got lucky. They're nothing but |
| 2:01.5 | glass. But this is just a variation of what's called a brushing scam. And sometimes I |
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