SPEEDWAY — Indiana's Attorney General is warning Hoosiers and those traveling to the Hoosier state to be on the lookout for scams targeting house rentals and ticket sales over the Memorial Day and Indy 500 weekends.
Attorney General Curtis Hill is urging homeowners and renters to be vigilant and anyone attending the race to be alert for fraudulent tickets and other scams, saying high-profile sporting events are "prime targets" for scammers.
The AG's office also issued some tips for avoiding ticket scams:
- Buy tickets from a trusted vendor or the official website.
- Buy tickets from a trusted vendor or the official website.
- Only use a credit card to purchase tickets; never use cash or wire money for tickets you’ve found online.
In addition to ticket scams, anyone traveling to Indiana should be aware of fake rental listings. The AG's office suggests consulting Google maps and images to confirm that the rental property you are booking really looks like the photos posted online.
Those renting their property should also be on the lookout for scams, including counterfeit checks and money. The AG's office says scammers may also contact homeowners acting as a prospective renter and offer to pay above listing price ask the homeowner to transfer any excess amount to a third party. Those scammers will provide a counterfeit check to the homeowner, defrauding them if they agree to forward the funds.
The Consumer Protection Division encourages homeowners and prospective renters to follow these steps to avoid rental scams:
- Pay by credit card for all online transactions. If the listing is fake, you can file a dispute with your credit card provider and receive a refund within 90 days.
- Do not open links taking you outside websites you know to be legitimate. Scammers will often email links with payment instructions that take you outside of the payment services of legitimate websites with which you are familiar. This is a phishing attempt to steal credit card information.
- Never pay with gift cards or wire transfers.
- Search the images of posted rentals on http://images.google.com by clicking the camera icon in the search bar and then pasting the URL of the posted rental image into the search box. Results showing a listing for the same property with a different address may indicate a scam.
Hoosiers are encouraged to contact the Office of the Attorney General about any suspected scams or scam attempts. You can file a complaint by visiting indianaconsumer.com or calling 1-800-382-5516.
