To the scam artist, anyone is fair game during this busy retail season.

From travel scams with bogus travel websites to phony “letters from Santa,” the fields are ripe for identity thieves who are constantly looking for a chance to intercept and steal your data.

According to the FTC, nearly one in five people reported losing money in an impostor scheme in 2017, amounting to a loss of $328 million.

Last week, Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking and Securities Robin L. Wiessman issued a warning on how card skimmers have upped their game with a new tactic for stealing information. Rather than collecting payment information from the swipe of a card’s magnetic strip, the theft of information by “shimmers” is done with a shim, a thin, card-size device embedded with a microchip or flash storage inserted directly into a card slot.

The shim reads and stores payment information until the scammer can return to collect it. Weissman explains that shims can be harder to detect due to their paper-thin size and concealment inside of the machine.

Consumers are advised that ATMs that are in low-traffic, poorly lit areas and those that are free-standing are more likely to be targets for fraud devices. If you have trouble removing your card or it gets stuck, contact the business and law enforcement to report the issue.

Also, watch bank statements and account activity carefully.

The ATM inside of a bank is less susceptible to shimmers. When possible, consumers are advised to use bank services, such as withdrawing money directly from a bank teller.

Feel-good stories are a favorite of news outlets this time of year, but unfortunately two of the most vulnerable demographic groups being targeted by scammers are military veterans and senior citizens.

One year ago, a New Jersey couple set up a GoFundMe page with the appearance to help a homeless Marine veteran. When the fundraising scam was uncovered, they were charged with bilking 14,347 donors out of $402,706 in just four months. The bulk of the money came in the first two weeks, driven by social-media shares and news coverage.

The crooks even posted news about purchasing a house for the distraught veteran and issued a thank-you to supporters: “The feeling is indescribable and (it’s) all thanks to the support and generosity that each and every one of you has shown,” it stated.

Shoppers should always look for websites that use addresses beginning with “https://.” That assures the site is using a secure, encrypted connection to your computer.

Senior citizen scams — often targeting grandparents — are rampant. The bad actors who call often pose as a grandchild or other family member and claim they have been in an accident, arrested, hospitalized or another urgent issue.

Often the caller tells you that a third person — a lawyer, doctor or police officer — will “explain everything to you” if you call him or her.

Other times, the caller asks you to send or wire money immediately, and cautions their victim, “Please, don’t tell Mom and Dad!”

State Banking and Securities Chief Wiessman states in her advisory that exerting a little extra effort and due diligence can go a long way in helping protect your personal financial information from scammers, who can value your personal information more than money.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com