Costco Scams Customers Should Know About Before Shopping – Mashed

Costco’s a popular place to shop, especially among those looking to save money. Unfortunately, that means that scammers love to target Costco, whose business model is designed to please both customers and employees. It’s the company’s aim to please that makes a lot of scams seem so believable. In fact, the problem is so widespread that the company has a page on its website of known scams — and it’s a long list. Costco is doing its part by warning customers not to fall for online scams. The scams tend to fall into certain categories, with giveaways, prizes, and surveys being among the most common.

Costco’s not alone, of course, and scammers are increasingly swiping money from consumers in all sorts of ways. The Federal Trade Commission reports that people lost over $9 billion to scammers in 2022 and $10 billion in 2023. The trend seems to be that the amount lost in each scam is increasing because the number of reports was fairly steady for both years. This means you need to be very careful about what you believe because the stakes are just getting higher. If you think you’ve fallen victim to a scam, you should contact the proper authorities. But it’s better not to fall for a scam in the first place. Here’s a look at the Costco scams people should know about before shopping there.

Everyone loves free stuff, and winning raffles and other low-stakes contests is just fun. Who doesn’t want to be a winner? It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that one of the top ways that con artists try to scam shoppers is by creating fake giveaways and prizes that just happen to require some personal information if you want to claim your prize. If you see anything about Costco offering a giveaway that you can enter, and if you’re not sure whether it’s a scam, call Costco directly to ask.

Be especially wary about notices that you’ve already won something. You’d think that people would realize that if they hadn’t entered any contests, then they shouldn’t be getting any notices about winning. But these messages can look so convincing and have such enticing prizes that people’s desire for the prize to be real often overwhelms their common sense, and they don’t recognize that something’s wrong. Again, always call Costco directly — use the customer service number you see on its real website and not any fake numbers listed in the prize notification — to verify what’s going on. Never provide personal information online through links included in a prize notification.

Related to the fake prizes and giveaways are scams that offer free stuff just for being a great customer. Maybe you see an ad saying that Costco plans to give away something for free to a certain number of people who reply; of course, the links or phone numbers that the ad supplies are not affiliated with Costco and meant only to grab as much personal information from you as possible. Sometimes these come in the form of gift cards, too, so keep your eyes open. While there are certain rules that Costco shoppers must follow, you should know the warehouse retailer doesn’t do freebies like this.

Always be suspicious of emails that claim to be from Costco that address you as “Dear Customer” and that offer huge gifts for seemingly little in return. One scam Costco cites claims to give customers a free 4K HDTV just for paying their credit card bills on time. Ignore these offers because all you’ll get in return is a ransacked credit card.

Filling out surveys for money or free stuff is a common method for earning a little on the side. So — you guessed it — scammers have been emailing consumers with fake Costco surveys for people to take that offer things in return, if only — yep, you guessed that, too — they’d provide some personal information. And scammers have gone wild with this type of fraud. The company’s webpage on known Costco scams lists seven different variations on this theme, from fake survey offers on social media to surveys by text message and more. You may get physical letter surveys, too.

These scams all aim to get bank account numbers and other personal information so that thieves can grab your money. Costco has a guide for dealing with these. The most important pieces of advice are to not click on links in those messages and to never provide personal information via email. The website also advises consumers to pass along the scams to the Federal Trade Commission and report any crimes to the FBI.

Despite all the verification programs out there, it’s really easy to set up fake social media profiles for companies and people. Costco has been a target of a few of these, with fake Facebook profiles for individual store departments or fake ads on social media advertising deals. While there are a lot of benefits to being a member at Costco, a free Christmas basket with hundreds of dollars’ worth of food for members who share a post on social media is not one of them. It’s fake.

No, the seafood department at Costco isn’t really trying to be your friend on Facebook, and no, that sponsored ad for heavy construction equipment on sale at a huge discount is not legitimate, either. You’ve got to keep in mind that mantra: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” It applies to nearly everything you see online. If you’ve got a tight budget and get an offer for one of these sweetheart deals, don’t fall for it out of desperation. Look for typos and beware of requests for personal information. Instead of responding, report the post or ad to the social media platform instead.

The shift from shopping only in person or via mail order to shopping online has made many companies develop their own online ordering processes and websites, rather than going through another major platform like Amazon. And, of course, it’s also made criminals create their own scam versions of those websites. Sometimes the fake is obvious; you notice that the URL is completely different and has nothing to do with Costco.

Other times, it’s not so clear. Maybe a letter in a word was dropped from the URL, making it look legit to anyone who just glances quickly at the web address and who isn’t checking carefully. Maybe it looks like a new division of Costco’s, such as an outlet or sale site for items that Costco can’t sell. And sometimes the URL looks like one from Costco, but when you click through, you don’t notice that the URL has suddenly changed. In any case, these websites are fake. Make any online purchases from Costco with your credit card rather than a debit card so that you have the potential to dispute the charges and get your money back, if you catch the scam in time.

Costco membership is for one year at a time, and it’s very easy to renew even after it expires. However, scammers hope that you don’t realize that and will send you notices about renewing your membership at the handy link they provide. Sometimes they even offer to extend your membership for free for a few months if you renew early or will give you a refund if you click through in the message to your bank, which, of course, immediately asks for account information without actually going to the bank’s real website.

Costco doesn’t do this. You can renew in person or through your Costco account online, you can renew at the checkout stand, you can set up autorenew on your account, and you can even renew for a time after the expiration of your current membership. And while there are a lot of big changes coming to Costco in 2024, extending the length of your current membership for free is not one of them. There are no loyalty programs giving you special renewal benefits, and Costco isn’t going to give you the chance to renew outside of a certain window of time. The scam has become so common that even some local district attorney offices have started warning consumers about it. Again, if you think these messages might be legit, don’t go to any links in the message. Always go straight to the official Costco website and check your account from there.

Scammers love to create as many versions of their scams as possible, and one category involves loyalty rewards, reimbursements, and direct deposits. You get a notice about some money due to you because of loyalty rewards, or because you were overcharged and are owed some money back. This type of scam goes out to everyone, with scammers hoping to reach someone who actually does have a Costco account. Of course, if you get one of these messages, ignore it, especially if you have no Costco account.

A related scam involves receiving a physical check that is supposedly for money Costco owes you. Everything about the check and letter looks very real, and it claims all you have to do is cash the check and send a smaller amount of money to cover the taxes owed. No, you don’t. First of all, if you actually won money or were getting money back, either the sender would automatically withhold money for taxes, or you’d deal directly with the IRS. Second, this is a common scam. The check eventually bounces, so you don’t receive any money. Instead, you lose the money you sent and may even be charged overdraft fees from your bank if your account goes in the red once the fake check is rejected.

Many people have felt that horrible internal “thunk” when finding out they may be in the midst of an account takeover or other financial crime. The panicked rush to check accounts, change passwords, and contact companies to find out why they’re getting notifications about purchases and transfers they didn’t make is terrifying. Scammers know that, and they use that to their advantage. They’ll send scam emails and texts about items in your online Costco cart being ready to check out, hoping you’ll click the link in their message and enter your password on a lookalike website.

This is a fake message phishing for personal information. However, people have reported a very odd version of this scam in which they received a notice about a Costco order being shipped to them, and when they checked, they found out that there apparently was a strange order shipping to them that they were able to cancel. One suggestion was that the scammers might have been testing a stolen credit card and had possibly planned to use the first person’s address as a location for porch-pirating packages. So, if you get a message about items in your online cart or a delivery you didn’t make, contact Costco directly rather than going through any links in the message.

One of the weirder scams involves supposed customer service workers calling from China, and this one seems to go in waves. The scam involves a phone call from “Costco Chinese Member Service” or a similar organization. Your caller ID service may even display one of three legitimate Costco numbers. Or so it seems. Those numbers are actually spoofed, in effect tricking your caller ID and making it look like the call came from Costco.

In one version, the caller tells you in English that someone’s opened an account in your name in China and that the account has been linked to fraud. In other cases, they’ve offered to switch to speaking Chinese or just started speaking in Chinese regardless of whether or not you speak the language. Sometimes they even claim your Costco card payment is overdue. In these cases, the caller already has your name, address, and phone number. In mid-2024, several Redditors reported receiving multiple calls like this, with some claiming the calls were so relentless that they had to block the number. If you get any calls that appear to be from Costco’s home office, e-commerce, or membership numbers, and you’re not expecting a call from one of these departments, don’t answer. Block the number if needed.

Some Costco scammers will stop at nothing to get your money and passwords, including posing as national agencies or major companies. Two scams use this method to induce panic about something going wrong in hopes of getting you to give them personal information. In one scam, you will get a text or email that appears to be from the U.S. Postal Service. The message claims that you have an undeliverable package and that you need to go to the post office website or the Costco website to update your delivery information. As you can guess, the website links provided in the message don’t actually lead to the real sites but instead to fake sites where anything you enter ends up in the wrong hands.

A similar scam involves PayPal, where it looks like PayPal is contacting you about a flower delivery order you placed. Of course, you see this unfamiliar recipient and have no knowledge of any flower order, so you rush to log into PayPal or Costco through the link that the message so helpfully provided. Again, that link leads to a fake website, and any information you provide goes to the scammers. Costco has released a notice regarding this last scam, clarifying that it doesn’t accept PayPal as a payment method, so any so-called orders linked to PayPal should be ignored.

Getting a job at Costco is notoriously difficult. Many workers at Costco start off as seasonal employees hoping to make the cut when it comes time for managers to keep a few people on permanently. Costco job seekers are prime targets for scammers who know that people will jump at the chance of getting a good-paying job.

You may see ads or receive spam emails about job openings, some of which may even be targeted at you specifically. These emails may come from what looks like a corporate office or human resources division and offer you the chance to interview for a job even if you never applied. The scam typically leads to would-be applicants being asked to pay a processing fee to access listings or a job offer. Costco has said that it does not honor these scam offers and that anyone who thinks they’ve been a victim should file a report with the U.S. Secret Service.

One scam that more Costco shoppers are encountering involves a person in the store claiming to have no money and desperately needing food. Could you buy them a few things? they ask. Their situation tugs at the heartstrings and seems legit at first, but if you stop and think — especially at Costco — you’ll see the holes in their story and catch on to their intent. That’s what one Costco shopper reported on Reddit when someone in the store asked them for help buying food. The woman had a cart full of groceries and claimed to be a new immigrant with no money to pay for them. However, the almost-victim thought to ask how the scammer had paid for a Costco membership card. The woman suddenly decided to ask someone else for “help.”

The problem has gotten so bad that news stations and finance websites are trying to warn their audiences about such scams. Don’t be fooled in these situations; scammers are relying on your guilty feelings as well as your ability to be intimidated to pressure you into cooperating. These scammers often try to return the groceries later to get cash back, so be suspicious of someone not only asking you to pay for their groceries but also requesting the receipt.

Sometimes scams have nothing to do with Costco but rather with the crowds it attracts. The more people there are in an area, the more people there are for scammers to go after. And with Costco’s busy parking lots and packed atmosphere that can distract, exhaust, and overwhelm some people, it’s not surprising that con artists would target shoppers. 

At least one person on Reddit reported that someone drove up in a nice car in a Costco parking lot and handed them jewelry, claiming they needed cash for gas. The idea was that the Redditor was supposed to give the driver money and then go and sell the jewelry for a lot of money. This is a common scam; the jewelry is fake, so the good-hearted person who hands the scammers cash ends up losing money. Another Costco customer reported being approached about having the dents fixed in their car; this is a known scam in which the “repair company” is either not legitimate or does terrible repairs, taking your money and disappearing. Another Costco customer reported being cornered by someone preaching about religion and trying to get them to sign up for a program and promising they would get paid for every person they recruited. 

Yet another Redditor who had worn scrubs to Costco reported someone approaching them about renting an apartment because their client wanted only medical professionals as tenants. Astute commenters noted that actual real estate professionals wouldn’t stake out a Costco for tenants.