Maricopa County’s top prosecutor warns shoppers to look out for fake holiday deals

PHOENIX — As shopping kicks into full swing, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell is reminding consumers to stay sharp due to fake holiday deals.

“When you’re seeing things that, in the store, would cost $20-$25 and it’s on sale for $5, you might want to bypass that,” Mitchell told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Monday.

A discount of that magnitude is a red flag that the item you’re about to buy has been stolen, she said.

“You’re contributing to the criminal enterprise, not only of the stealing, but what that money ultimately goes to, which is going to be something related to, for example, drug trafficking, human trafficking,” Mitchell said.

To help metro Phoenix shoppers avoid the high cost of a good deal, Mitchell’s office launched her latest holiday shopping campaign, which will share tips consumers can use to avoid criminal enterprises.

It’s a continuation of a similar campaign she first launched in 2023.

Falling for fake holiday deals could help criminals, she says

Not only that, but old scams are popping up like weeds as Christmas glows around the corner.

“We’ve seen a resurgence in the gift card scams,” Mitchell said. “You don’t want to send a gift card to your grandchild and have them call and say, ‘There’s nothing there.'”

Scammers who pull the rug out from under gift-givers in this way will record the numbers of gift cards in stores. That way, when someone buys the card, the scammer runs the number and steals the money.

“Retailers are trying to cover some of it, and they’re losing a lot of money doing so,” Mitchell said.

That’s just one of many scams swirling around the Valley. Aside from gift card tampering, prosecutors are also warning consumers about credit card skimming. In this trick, criminals install devices on ATMs and fuel pumps to steal shoppers’ credit card information.

How Arizona shoppers can avoid fake holiday deals in 2024

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office warned shoppers to watch out for online sales of goods that are frequently stolen for the purpose of illegal resale, such as makeup, power tools and home goods.

Shoppers also should never pay upfront for items they haven’t received.

A few other red flags of stolen goods are brand-new products being sold for low prices, sellers with a large number of new items and sellers giving out items from unusual locations, like the back of their truck, a storage unit or their homes.