While it is not even Thanksgiving yet, many people have turned their attention to Christmas.  In fact, it was not unusual to see Christmas decorations in stores prior to Halloween.  One holiday scam that rarely gets discussed relates to letters from Santa Claus.  Yes, Virginia, even Santa Claus may scam you.

A number of phony websites and posts on social media are offering personalized letters from Santa Claus that you can purchase for your children. Unfortunately, while the spirit of Santa Claus is real, many of the companies offering these letters from Santa are not and all that you end up doing is turning over your credit card number to a scammer who then uses it to make fraudulent purchases while you receive no letter from Santa Claus or even the Grinch.  There are some legitimate companies offering letters from Santa for a fee, but it is important to check them out thoroughly before hiring their services. An easy first step to do that is to merely Google the name of the company with the word “scam” and see what comes up.

TIPS

If you are interested in a free letter to Santa for your child, you can use the United States Postal Service’s Letters from Santa program which you can reach using this link https://about.usps.com/holidaynews/letters-from-santa.htm

All you need to do is have your child write a letter to Santa Claus. Then write your own response from Santa Claus and mail both letters along with an envelope with the return address of “Santa, North Pole” and mail it to “North Pole Postmark Postmaster, 4141 Postmark Dr., Anchorage Alaska 99530-9998 and your child will get a personalized letter from Santa with a North Pole postmark at no cost to you. The deadline this year for receipt of the letters to Santa is December 10th. The only cost is your postage.

Also, as a reminder, whenever you order anything online (or in a brick and mortar store for that matter) you should use your credit card rather than your debit card because the law provides you with much more protection from fraud if you use your credit card.

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