With the holiday season coming up, you're advised to be careful not to fall for any lurking scams.
This year, just like the last, the Better Business Bureau scam tracker is seeing online purchase scams as the riskiest scams reported to them.
Online scams are one of the biggest reason’s experts are encouraging people to shop locally so you know exactly what you’re getting directly from the buyer. Experts are also saying to be careful when trying to find that perfect gift online.
Tim Johnston, the Vice President of Outreach with the Better Business Bureau says, "If you find yourself online going through your social media feeds and all of a sudden see ads pop up, chances are those are done by scammers."
If it’s your first-time doing business with a company especially online, dive deeper, because scammers also create fake websites. Johnston warns "If you happen to do a search for your favorite store and click on that first link that pops up it may or may not be the real website."
To make sure a website is real, make sure the name is spelled correctly and look for the lock symbol at the top of your screen.
Also, if you find little information about the website, this can be a red flag. He adds that "customer reviews can be done by scammers they can be done by content farms they may not be real legitimate customer reviews."
This time of year, they see a lot of people buying pets, and pet scams are costing people hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you’re buying a pet solely online, there’s a high chance you’re dealing with a scammer.
Experts advise, local adoption is always a safer option, but if you must buy the pet online… “Make sure that you see that pet before you make that purchase. If the person you're buying it from refuses or throws up a lot of obstacles, stop and move on," says Johnston.
With the holiday season and black Friday closing in fast, even if you want to gift your family or friends with a must buy item be careful because those are the type of situations scammers prey on.
Johnston advises "If you're solely making your purchase decision based on price step back and think about it, because what we find is when people have lost money to scammers the primary motivating factor was a low price."
