{"id":223643,"date":"2025-11-07T09:46:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/?p=223643"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:46:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:46:02","slug":"this-week-in-scams-fake-steaks-and-debit-card-porch-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/security-news\/this-week-in-scams-fake-steaks-and-debit-card-porch-pirates\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Scams: Fake Steaks and Debit Card Porch Pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re back with a new edition of \u201cThis Week in Scams,\u201d a roundup of what\u2019s current and trending in all things sketchy online.<\/p>\n

This week, we have fake steaks, why you should shop online with a credit card, and a new and utterly brash form of debit card fraud.<\/p>\n

Fake steaks from \u201c0maha Steaks\u201d<\/h2>\n

Yes, the letter \u201cO\u201d for Omaha in the subject line of this email scam is actually a zero. And that\u2019s not the only thing that\u2019s off with this email, it\u2019s a total scam.<\/p>\n

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An image of a scam 0maha Steaks email.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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If you like your choice cuts, the name Omaha Steaks might be a familiar one. They\u2019ve been around for almost 110 years, and since 1953 they\u2019ve been in the mail order meat business. Today, they sell, well, just about anything you can picture in the butcher or seafood case. With that, the company enjoys a premium reputation, so it\u2019s little surprise scammers have latched onto it and built a phishing attack around the brand\u2014one they garnish with a nod to concerns over rising food prices.<\/p>\n

A few things can quickly tip you off to this scam. For starters, the scammers oddly spell Omaha with a zero in the subject line, as mentioned. From there, the sender\u2019s email address is a straight ref flag. In this case, it\u2019s the curiously spelled \u201csteaksamplnext\u201d followed by a (redacted) domain name that isn\u2019t the legitimate omahasteaks dot-com address. Also curious is the lack of an actual price for the bogus \u201cGourmet Box.\u201d And lastly, you might think that a premium foods brand would showcase some pictures of their famous fare in the email. Not so here.<\/p>\n

Rounding it out, you\u2019ll see the classic scammer tactics of scarcity and urgency, which scammers hope will pressure people to act immediately. In this case, only 500 of these supposed boxes are available, and the offer \u201cconcludes tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to avoid Omaha Steak scams and phishing scams like them<\/h2>\n

Even as this scam makes the rounds, it\u2019s easy to spot if you give it a closer look and a little thought\u2014giving it a sort of old-school feel to it. However, more and more of today\u2019s phishing emails look increasingly legit, thanks to AI tools, which might get you to click.<\/p>\n

As for phishing attacks like this in general, you can protect yourself by:<\/p>\n

Always checking the email address of the sender.<\/strong> If it doesn\u2019t match the proper address of the company or brand that\u2019s supposedly sending the email, it\u2019s a scam. In this case, from the people at Omaha Steaks themselves, \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t show OmahaSteaks.com and @OmahaSteaks, it\u2019s not us!\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking for addresses and links that look like they\u2019ve been slightly altered <\/strong>so that they seem \u201cclose enough\u201d to the real thing. In this case, the scammer didn\u2019t even bother to try. However, you could expect an alteration like \u201comahasteakofferforyou.com\u201d to try and look legit.<\/p>\n

Getting a scam detector.<\/strong> Our Scam Detector,<\/a> found in all core McAfee plans,<\/a> helps you stay safer with advanced scam detection technology built to spot and stop scams across text messages, emails, and videos. It\u2019ll also block those sites if you accidentally tap or click on a bad link.<\/p>\n

One good reason for using your credit card when shopping online.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What\u2019s the most common kind of fraud? If you said, \u201ccredit card,\u201d you\u2019ll find it number five on the list. The top form is debit cards, according to 2025 findings from the U.S. Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n

As reported by financial institutions, the Fed found that attempts at debit card fraud rose to 73% with 52% of those attempts being successful.<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a good reason for that debit card fraud ranks highest for attempts and success rate. It\u2019s the same reason that credit card fraud is relatively low. Debit cards don\u2019t have the same fraud protections in place that credit cards do.<\/p>\n

As you might have read in our blogs before, credit cards offer additional protection thanks to the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA). Your maximum liability is $50 for fraudulent charges on a lost or stolen card if you report the loss to your issuer within 60 days. In the case of relatively unprotected debit cards, those losses often go unrecovered.<\/p>\n

Keep this in mind as you sit down for your online shopping for the holidays: use a credit card instead of a debit card. That gives you the protection of the FCBA if your shopping session gets hacked or if the retailer experiences a data breach somewhere down the road. Also think about making it even safer by shopping with a VPN. Our VPN creates an encrypted \u201ctunnel\u201d that protects your data<\/a> from crooks and prying eyes, so your card info stays private.<\/p>\n

A new debit card scam with a porch pirate twist<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First reported by the FBI last year, we\u2019re seeing continued reports of a brash and bold form of debit card scam\u2014people physically handing over their cards to scammers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The scam starts like many card scams do, with a phone call. Scammers spoof the caller ID of the victim\u2019s bank or credit union, ring them up, and tell them there\u2019s a \u201cproblem\u201d with their account. From there, scammers direct victims to cut up their current card\u2014but with a twist. They tell victims to keep the little EMV chip for tap-and-go payments intact.<\/p>\n

Why? Victims get instructed to leave the cut-up card and intact chip in the mailbox for a \u201ccourier\u201d to pick up for \u201csecurity purposes.\u201d Once in hand, scammers get access to the bank account associated with the chip. Even if the scammers don\u2019t wrangle a PIN number out of their victims with a little social engineering trickery, they can still make purchases with the chip as some points of sale don\u2019t require a PIN number when tapping to pay.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you can avoid the \u201cporch pirate\u201d debit card scam<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Shred your old cards in a paper shredder. <\/strong>Then, take the next step. Grab the shredded pieces and throw them away in separate batches. This will all make it fantastically tough for a scammer to piece together your card and steal your info.<\/p>\n

Call back your bank yourself.<\/strong> If you get a call, voicemail, or text saying there\u2019s an issue with your account, you can verify any possible issue yourself by calling the number on the back of your card.<\/p>\n

Know that banks won\u2019t send \u201ccouriers\u201d for cards.<\/strong> And they\u2019ll simply never ask you to leave your card in your mailbox.<\/p>\n

Other scam and cybersecurity headlines this week<\/h2>\n