On Your Side: High school football streaming scam

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Don’t get scammed while trying to watch high school football.

It takes a few swipes, and you’re duped.

Jean Clifford thought she could watch her grandson score a touchdown from her couch. She plugged in Glendale Falcons in the YouTube search bar.

“It’s free, but you need to register, and you need to pay one dollar. Well, paying a dollar meant I knew they were going to need a card,” she said.

She plugged in the numbers.

“I was kind of leery, but I wanted to see that game so bad. My husband died in March, and he went to every game last year. I just couldn’t make the steps to the bleachers, or walk that far, or sit that long. So I couldn’t go, and it was breaking my heart. So this was a desperate act,” she said.

A desperate act that didn’t work. No game.

“It wanted my name, phone number, and address. I thought this sounded like an identity theft scam. So I stopped,” said Clifford.

She could have lost money if she did not have fraud protection. She got an alert from her bank.

“They had already checked out the name of the company that was debiting my account for $39.99,” she said.

Her card was canceled.

“If you do want to watch your child or grandchild’s game, just ask the school if they are still offering streaming of the games. Many schools did it during pandemic shutdowns, but some stuck with it for convenience,” said Pamela Hernandez with the Better Business Bureau.

Be aware of streaming scams.

Each school district is different, so find out if games are streamed. Springfield Public Schools streams games in gyms, stadiums, and some soccer on this website. It’s free.

Be careful about any streaming links you see, especially on social media in comments. Streaming services usually won’t ask you to re-enter your credit card number because it already has that information.

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