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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 23, 2022
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AG Nessel Launches Holiday
Consumer Protection Campaign |
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LANSING - As families prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and other traditions to welcome the holidays, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is launching her annual holiday consumer protection campaign focused on ways to protect your information if you’ll be hitting stores in person or online over the weekend.
Beginning Friday and continuing through mid-December, the Attorney General's website will focus on educating consumers on the numerous scams and tactics used to cheat them out of their funds during the holidays.
“The holidays are the time of year when we gather to celebrate traditions and spend time with family,” said Nessel. “Unfortunately, it is also a time of year when bad actors take advantage of the increase in consumer sales to gain access to personal and financial information. Michigan residents deserve peace of mind this holiday season and should take advantage of the resources available through the Department of Attorney General to help protect themselves from scammers.”
To kick off the campaign, Nessel is sharing important information surrounding the biggest shopping and philanthropic days of the year – Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday – with the reissuance of consumer alerts focused on protecting your information.
Those tips include creating a strong password and PIN that is unique to only that specific credit card, as well as keeping the information private and shredding documents like statements before they go in the trash.
Keep the following in mind if you’ll be spending money online:
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Research the retailer. You will know the business and their existing inventory if you’re visiting a store, but on the web some businesses are fabricated by people who just want your credit card information or other personal details. Avoid online retailers if you cannot verify their listed physical locations and customer service phone numbers. Then double check any listed information is legitimate by putting them in an online search.
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Do an online image search of the product and any other images the seller has posted to see where the product is coming from, how much it really costs and who else is selling it. Watch this video to learn how to do that.
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When making online purchases, pay with a credit card. Credit cards provide protections that allow you to dispute charges if an item is not delivered or is not as advertised.
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