As holiday scams surge in Toledo, FBI warn shoppers to slow down, verify, use credit

As scammers become more crafty, anyone can fall victim.

“It’s a numbers game,” FBI Supervisory Special Agent Patrick Koeth said, and fraudsters bank on the season’s rush and generosity to cash in.

“More people are donating and buying online, so scammers get more victims. A lot of the scams that we see during the holidays we see year round. During the holidays we hear about scams more, and people are more susceptible to fall for them,” Mr. Koeth said, citing too-good-to-be-true online offers, and schemes that start with a text or email before escalating to a high-pressure phone call.

Holiday shopping comes with a warning from experts that scams are spiking — and evolving. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or ic3, receives about 800,000 scam and fraud complaints per year. And whi