AARP

The holidays may be over, but porch pirate season never ends.

While at-home deliveries are at their highest over the holiday season, direct-to-home shopping happens every day around the country.

Here are some simple steps you can take to safeguard your orders: schedule deliveries for times when you are home, ask neighbors to pick up packages for you if you can’t be home, ask the shipper to put packages out of sight, like on a side porch or under a bush and use parcel lockers if they are available in your area. Also, be aware of emails claiming a package is being held and the shipper needs more information. These can be phishing attacks meant to capture payment information or to get you to download malicious software.

Be a fraud fighter! If you can spot a scam, you can stop a scam.

Report scams to local law enforcement. For help from AARP, call 1-877-908-3360 or visit the AARP Fraud Watch Network at www.aarp.org/fraudwatchnetwork.