With so many businesses offering deals on Cyber Monday, many Americans will be doing a lot of holiday shopping online.
With so many people buying items online, scammers have plenty of opportunity to steal money from shoppers or even important personal information.
During this time, there are lots of social media advertisements or fake text messages and emails with links to fake websites.
People should be on the lookout for these suspicious messages and if you are browsing the internet during the holiday shopping season, pay close attention to the websites URL.
"One thing we always recommend is checking the URL and making sure it says https vs. just http because sometimes it will be a fake website if the S is missing, because it stands for secure," said Melani Fox, Director of Communications for the Better Business Bureau, Mountain West.
If you are browsing on a website that you trust, it can be a good idea to avoid clicking on pop ups or advertisements that are not related to the website you are on.
You will also want to use a more secure payment method and keep any receipts for purchases you make today.
"Whatever your payment option is, we don't recommend using Venmo, Zelle, Cash App just things like that like a direct money transfer app because it is a lot easier to lose your money that way if it turns out to be a scam, rather if you use a credit card, you can refute it with your bank," said Melani Fox.
If you think you have run into a fake website or believe you are already being scammed, you can head over to the Better Business Bureau's free Scam Tracker by clicking here.
