A Lincoln woman is urging others to be cautious after falling victim to a scam while trying to rent a car last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Connie Rader never expected to fall prey to a scam. She was searching online for the rental company \u201cEnterprise\u201d and found a link offering vehicle rentals for $25 a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI clicked on the link, thinking it was Enterprise and everything would be fine. I thought I was going to get my car,\u201d Rader explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the website was fraudulent, and Rader ended up in contact with a scammer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe was very professional. I didn\u2019t see any red flags, but she did say, \u2018I need you to go to Walgreens,\u2019\u201d Rader recounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scammer instructed Rader to buy Apple and eBay gift cards to pay for the rental. After providing the gift card information, Rader was repeatedly told the cards weren\u2019t working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After several stops and multiple purchased gift cards, Rader realized she had been scammed out of more than $900. Her husband discovered the scam after checking their bank account and seeing the money missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nebraska Attorney General\u2019s Office warns that scams where fraudulent websites appear at the top of search results are becoming more common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To ensure a website is legitimate, look for specific indicators. \u201cIn the web address, the URL should start with \u2018HTTPS\u2019 for secure sites,\u201d explained Ryan Sothan, Outreach Coordinator at the Nebraska Attorney General\u2019s Office. \u201cA closed padlock symbol in the address bar also ensures your data is encrypted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sothan emphasized that no legitimate business accepts gift cards as a form of payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rader hopes to prevent others from experiencing the same ordeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Attorney General\u2019s office advises anyone in a similar situation to immediately contact their bank and report the incident to the AG\u2019s Consumer Protection Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Lincoln woman is urging others to be cautious after falling victim to a scam while trying to rent a car last week. Connie Rader never expected to fall prey to a scam. She was searching online for the rental company \u201cEnterprise\u201d and found a link offering vehicle rentals for $25 a day. \u201cI clicked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-3943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-rental-scam","tag-scam-awareness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3945,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions\/3945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}