Photo: Jacob Lund (Shutterstock)
The 2020 holiday season was no picnic, but it looks like 2021 will have its own challenges. Although vaccines are available for the vast majority of Americans who want them, we are still very much in the middle of a global pandemic, battling the latest new, concerning variant. Although things don’t quite look like we thought they would, many people have decided to travel this holiday season—including by air. In that case, it might be tempting to get (or renew) a TSA PreCheck membership, so at least one part of the process will go smoothly.
Unfortunately, scammers also see the value in PreCheck. Here’s what to know about the latest TSA PreCheck scams, and how to avoid them.
How to spot and avoid TSA PreCheck scams
Even if you’re usually able to spot a phishing email a mile away, this year, scammers have upped their game, according to former FBI analyst Crane Hassold. “Unlike other scams we see every day, these TSA PreCheck scam emails are actually quite sophisticated,” he told The Ascent in a recent interview. “The normal red flags we tell people to look out for aren’t really there.”
Even if the email isn’t filled with misspellings, grammatical errors, and slightly-off-looking versions of TSA logos, there are still other things to check in order to avoid these scams: namely, the email address of the sender, and how they’re asking for money.
“Consumers should always verify that the web address they are visiting to register for TSA PreCheck ends in ‘.gov,’” R. Carter Langston, a TSA spokesperson recently told Forbes. “Any website that claims to allow consumers to register for TSA PreCheck that does not end in ‘.gov’ is not an official TSA PreCheck web site and consumers should not provide personal information or payment information.”
The other major red flag comes when it’s time to pay for your renewal or application fees. According to Hassold, there are usually multiple ways to make a payment for government services, but scammers only give you the option of using PayPal.
“[The link in the email] actually takes you to a PayPal page where the scammer has actually set up their own account,” he told Forbes. “They don’t take credit card information, but they have all your identification information from earlier in the application.”
Or, better yet, don’t purchase or renew a TSA PreCheck membership by clicking on a link you were sent via an email. Instead, go directly to the TSA or Homeland Security website. Like their email addresses, their URLs will end in .gov—not .com, .org, or any of the other ones out there.
How to report a scam
So what, exactly, are scammers after? In addition to pocketing your renewal/application fee, they now also have your personal information, which they are able to “sell on the dark web or use it themselves to create false identities that can be used illegally,” CBS17 reports.
If you get an email and suspect it’s a scam, or end up clicking on a bad link yourself, TSA says to do the following:
Report the fraud to your local police department.File a report with the Federal Trade Commission website.Contact your credit card company or bank, and let them know about any fraudulent charges.In the event that your credit card information ended up in the wrong hands, this is something you have to deal with through your bank or credit card company: TSA specifically states on its website that it “will not issue a reimbursement to applicants who attempt to enroll in TSA PreCheck through a fraudulent website.”
