Holiday Travels? Avoid TSA PreCheck Scams

No one likes waiting in airport security lines. To speed things up, some people opt to get TSA PreCheck. Scammers know this and send emails that appear to be from TSA PreCheck. The emails want you to click a link that takes you to a fake website that looks just like the official TSA site. If you pay to “enroll” or “renew” your TSA PreCheck, you may not even realize you’ve paid a scammer until you get to the airport. But there are ways to spot these scams.

If you’re applying for TSA PreCheck for the first time, you can’t pay the application fee online. To get PreCheck, you complete the application and pay in person at a TSA enrollment center. Only a scammer will ask you to pay online to enroll.

If you already have TSA PreCheck, you can renew and pay either in-person or online. The real TSA will send renewal reminder emails out. But to avoid a scam, start your renewal by directly typing in the web address tsa.gov/precheck instead of clicking a link. This will ensure you’re at the real TSA website.

To avoid scammers impersonating TSA PreCheck:

· Don’t click links in unexpected emails or text messages, no matter how real they look.

· Don’t be rushed. If someone insists that you to pay right away, that’s a scammer. · Start at tsa.gov/precheck. Typing in that URL yourself is the best way to avoid a scam. Remember that all TSA PreCheck sites are .gov sites, not .com.