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8. Costco
Costco is a trusted mainstay for families from middle America to the coasts. It runs on low-cost memberships that renew annually and a strong association with great value. Scammers hijack that brand equity, because a message to members doesn't feel like marketing spam, it feels like an account you own needing attention. And because members genuinely expect renewal notices and member-only rewards, the fakes read as routine until the payment page.
How Costco is being impersonated
Popular impersonation lures to pay attention to:
Membership renewal notices
"Your membership has expired" or "your renewal payment failed," with a link to a Costco-lookalike page that harvests card details. The urgency is doing the work: nobody wants to lose warehouse access over a lapsed card.
Reward and survey lures
"You've been selected for an exclusive member reward" or a short "member satisfaction survey" that ends with a free high-value item — just pay a small shipping fee. The fee is bait; the card number is the prize.
Fake Costco storefronts
Lookalike sites and social ads trading on the brand's low-price reputation with impossible deals, part of the broader scam-storefront wave we track in Emerging Trends.
Second channel checks
When you want to be sure
- 1
Check your membership yourself.
Open the Costco app or type costco.com and sign in — your real renewal date and status are on your account page. If the app says you're current, the message was a scam.
- 2
Renew only in-store or on Costco's official site.
Costco doesn't collect renewal payments through emailed or texted links. Renew only in-store or at costco.com.
- 3
Verify by phone on the real number.
Call 1-800-774-2678 (Costco member services) for anything membership-related — never a number from the message.