Fantastic, Another Scam New Jersey Residents Should Be Weary Of

This is more so a precautionary post, something to be aware of. It's happened in other states but could happen to us right here in New Jersey.

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Have you ever been scammed? It's not a fun experience.

I was once; my wife and I somehow got onto a list for "energy-efficient heating" in our house, and our electric bill skyrocketed by hundreds of dollars.

Our electric company didn't know how we got signed up, and they weren't even sure how our information was given to this third-party company.

Our electric company at the time told us that some third-party companies would just automatically sign random addresses up for their energy programs hoping homeowners wouldn't notice the increase.

It was a mess, but we sorted it out.

The latest scam that I'm hearing about, may not wrack up your electric bill by hundreds of dollars but it could cause headaches.

Oh, and it's been reported to be happening at a pretty major retailer.

What New Scam Should New Jersey Residents Be On The Look Out For?

As I mentioned, it's more of a precautionary tale, but Yahoo reports that a Walmart shopper in Texas noticed something strange with her receipt after using self-checkout.

There was a charge for a debit load of twenty dollars, as well as a charge for "Visa" for four ninety-five.

After the customer went to the service desk to ask what these extra chargers were for, the employee explained what happened.

Apparently, people are going to self-checkouts, scanning a gift card, or prepaid card for a small amount like twenty bucks, and then walking away from the self-checkout.

The hope is that the next customer to use the self-checkout machine won't notice the gift card or pre-paid card and will just scan their items, pay whatever the total is, and then carry on with their day.

How To Avoid This Scam In New Jersey

So the easiest thing to do is make sure the self-checkout is on a fresh screen and an order hasn't already been started.

The next best thing is to always check your receipt and make sure it matches what you have in your cart.

When in doubt, you can always use the "old fashioned" checkout lanes that have a person handling all of this for you.

Unfortunately, scammers are just a part of the world we live in, so it's always good to keep a vigilant eye!