Parents needing baby formula are targeted by scammers during national shortage
Baby formula supply in Florida is low, parents warn, saying store shelves bare
Scammers target parents buying baby formula amid national shortage
Nationwide baby formula aisles remain empty. As if parents didn’t have enough to worry about, they should be on the lookout for scammers too.
MINNEAPOLIS – Scammers are targeting parents trying to find baby formula. Shelves remain empty and websites say they're out of stock as the Biden administration tries to get a handle on the crisis that’s putting infant lives at risk.
Jeffrey Gouge and his wife live in Florida and are expecting their second child in July. "We wanted to have a backup option to have some formula available in the house, just in the event that things don't work out breastfeeding," Gouge said.
But across the U.S., baby formula is 45% below the expected supply.
"We got really worried. I was at work, and she sent me a text and said, ‘hey, I just bought some formula online," Gouge said. "She verbatim said, ‘I don't know how I found it. But I bought it online,’ and it's one of the scariest phrases that someone can say nowadays."
Parents are having family and friends ship in baby formula from across the country if there is a shortage in their area. (Fox News)
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He went on, "The website itself allows you to add anywhere between one case of something all the way to 1,000. And, if you put your credit card on file and you have the money available to place that order, your money will be drafted from your account. And the problem is, they will never be able to fulfill that order."
"Once we went to (the store) to pick up a few items, and kind of mosey over to the baby formula section and all the postnatal care, we realized how bad things really were," Jeffrey Gouge said. (Fox News)
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Thankfully, Gouge said he lost only $74.10, but he’s worried other parents might not be so lucky. He reported the website to the Better Business Bureau’s online scam tracker.
Sandra Guile with the BBB said it's seen multiple baby formula scams in the last week. "Online purchase scams are very, very common. Sadly, it is the number one riskiest scam."
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She suggested using a credit card over a debit card, being wary of people's private messages and making sure to research any company before buying its product.
"They will use any means possible to get one or two pieces of information from you, and that's either your personal identifiable information or your banking information," Guile said. "These scammers are very persuasive. They're very tricky."