An alert for parents this holiday season as scammers are not only looking to take your money, but they may be targeting your kids as well.

Santa is being used as part of the scam.

It’s every kid’s dream to wake up on Christmas morning to find a handwritten note from Santa, accompanied with gifts under the tree.



But scams have recently popped up during the holiday season targeting parents with unsolicited emails advertising personalized handwritten notes from Santa to your child.

“There have been reports of people paying money to get some kind of holiday package from Santa or letter from Santa,” said Office of Consumer Protection Executive Director Steve Levins. “They’ll pay $19.99 and they end up with nothing.”

Levins says the best case scenario is that you’re out $19.99.

“You have to be careful too about providing your child’s personal information,” Levins added. “There are people out there that want to exploit this for bad reasons.”

Worst case scenario is that the scammers now have your credit card information as well.

“At the very least they’re going to be using that for marketing purposes,” shared Levins. “You don’t necessarily want to give all of your personal information of your kid to a marketer who’s only going to be using it for their own benefit and not for your child’s benefit.”

Levins emphasizes there are legitimate companies that offer personalized letters from Santa.

He encourages people to research a company and look at reviews posted by others.



If you have an issue or concern you’d like to share, or if you’d like to become an Action Line volunteer, give them a call at 591-0222 weekdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. or send an email to actionline@khon2.com.