HOLIDAY ONLINE SHOPPING – Tips to Avoid Online Shopping Fraud

With holiday shopping in full swing, scammers will try to take advantage and take your money and personal information while you look for gifts for your loved ones.

Here are some tips to help you avoid a shopping scammer,

·         Research unfamiliar brands or websites. You may find a good deal for an item that you want to purchase on a website that is unfamiliar to you. Do a web search with the company’s name or website’s name and terms like “review,” “scam,” or “complaint.” For example- “Special Good Deals complaint.” Then see what people have to say about the website.

·         Look for misspellings in the URL. Scammers often try to mimic legitimate, known websites not only with the graphics and layout of the site, but also with the URL. For example, “acehardware.com” might be misspelled with “acehardwear.com” by a scammer. Another trick is to use a subdomain. For example, a scammer might use “netflix.com.movies.com” for their fake website, hoping that you won’t notice that “movies.com” is the real domain name. You can check out if a site is safe by using Google’s Safe Browsing Tool, https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search, You can check out when a website was created ICANN Lookup site, https://lookup.icann.org/en. A new website or recent copyright date indicates the website is a scam.

·         Search the website for an address or phone number. First, if there is no address or phone number, that might be an indication that the website is fake. Second, if you find an address and/or a phone number, you can check to ensure that the address is legitimate through a search of it with a mapping app such as Google Maps, and you can do a search of the phone number to ensure that it is genuine.

·         Stay away from deals that are too good to be true. Be skeptical of offerings that are well below their retail value.

·         Pay with a credit card. Don’t pay with a debit card or via gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. Debit card payments take money directly out of your checking account, so you are not protected from fraud. Payments by gift cards, wire transfers, and cryptocurrencies have become indicators of scams.

·         Look for delivery, exchange, refund, and return policies. If the sight does not have these policies, or if they are vague, go somewhere else to make your purchase. Also, legitimate online shopping websites should have detailed complaint or dispute handling policies in case something goes wrong with your order.

 

If something goes wrong with an online order, for example you paid for a purchase but don’t receive anything and you suspect the website is fraudulent, report the occurrence to,

·         Better Business Bureau- https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint

·         Federal Trade Commission- https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/ or call 877-FTC-Help

·         FBI- https://www.ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice/default.aspx

 

Many online shopping transactions are conducted through social media, including Facebook.

·         Facebook- If you encounter an advertisement that violates Facebook’s policies go to this link for instructions on how to file a complaint, https://www.facebook.com/business/help/162606073801742

·         Instagram- To report abuse and spam on Instagram go to, https://help.instagram.com/165828726894770

 

 

 

Verify:

https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/scams-verify/5-tips-avoid-onling-shopping-scams/536-20db68f1-7d96-42d5-b4e6-83b0c5bfa5a6

https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/scams-verify/how-to-avoid-online-shopping-scams-verify/536-08be036d-4e5b-4030-9eda-3a6953855c09?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_VerifyThis&s=09

 

Federal Trade Commission:

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/online-shopping

 

AARP:

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/online-shopping.html

 

Better Business Bureau:

https://www.bbb.org/all/scamstudies/fake_online_retailers_study/2024-study-update-online-shopping-fraud

 

 

HOLIDAY ONLINE SHOPPING – Beware of Scammers Ripping You Off

We are heavy into the holiday shopping season. Here are a few reminders of what to watch for to avoid being scammed.

Scammers use several techniques to collect your money and/or your personal information while you are shopping online. Some of the techniques include,

 

·       Creating fake websites and sending out fraudulent emails. They can spoof a real company’s website. They may make offers that are “too good to be true.” You might make an order, give the information to pay them, then not receive what you ordered.

·       Intercepting insecure transactions. With an unsecure link they can collect your personal and account information to sell to other criminals or to purchase items for themselves.

·       Targeting computers that are not up to date with their anti-virus or anti-malware software. Scammers will download malware to collect your personal information, collect the information in your address book, or insert ransomware.

 

You can avoid fraudulent online shopping by,

 

·         Be sure your operating system and your anti-virus and anti-malware software is up to date.

·       Know who you are doing business with. Only shop with reputable businesses that you know. If you are thinking about do business on a website that you do not know, check it out with a web search and include the words “who is” or “scam” in your search. Look for customer reviews of the seller.

·       Don’t use websites that make you download anything.

·       Be sure that the website is secure with “https://” in the URL. Also, do not shop online over an unsecure public Wi-Fi.

·        Don’t over share your information. Online vendors should only need your shipping address, name, your email and your credit card number.

·       When making a purchase use your credit card, not your debit card, a gift card, or wire transfer. If the vendor does not live up the transaction you have protection through your credit card. Debit cards gives vendors direct access to your bank account and gift cards or wire transfers are like cash, once the vendor receives the funds, your money is gone.

 

 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA):

https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/tips/ST07-001

 

Yahoo Finance:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/technology/how-to-avoid-holiday-shopping-scams-in-2020/ar-BB1bG3WH

 

 

 

ONLINE SHOPPING- Shopping Safely With A Growing Trend

We are now well into the holiday shopping season. Initial reports show robust shopping between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. In fact, news reports show a 20% increase in online shopping on Cyber Monday with $9.4 billion spent this year versus $7.9 billion spent last year. Clearly, more people are taking advantage of the convenience of online shopping.

With the publicity over the past few years of data breaches, phishing, malware, and other techniques used by criminals to steal identity and therefore steal funds from their victims, you might wonder if online shopping is safe.

Online shopping can be just as safe as shopping in a store. Or just as risky. Like shopping in a store, you need to take some practical steps to protect your money and property when shopping online. This posting gives a practical view of the risks of online shopping:

Ask Leo! By Leo Notenboom:

https://askleo.com/online_shopping_just_how_safe_is_it/



The lesson is that shopping online can be safe. You just need to get into the habit of acting safely. Here are some more thoughts about how to shop online safely:

Krebs on Security:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/11/how-to-shop-online-like-a-security-pro/



Fraudsters are constantly experimenting with new ways to trick you as a consumer to give away your private personal information and trick businesses to give over your personal information. The reports you see about new techniques may seem overwhelming. Awareness of these techniques, however, is important to protecting yourself from harm. Police encourage us to be aware of our surroundings, on the streets, in stores, and in our neighborhoods. Being aware online is equally important.

With that, here are a couple of articles that talk about some new techniques. CBS talks about fraudulent websites luring online shoppers:  



CBS:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-friday-2019-fraudulent-websites-targeting-holiday-shoppers-looking-for-a-bargain/



Consumer Reports talks about a variety of techniques including phishing, malicious apps, and hackers to legitimate web sites:

Consumer Reports:

https://www.consumerreports.org/digital-security/dont-let-online-shopping-threats-spoil-holiday-season/



This Seattle Times article talks about the initial shopping numbers for Black Friday through Cyber Monday:

The Seattle Times:

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/a-record-190-million-americans-shopped-thanksgiving-weekend-most-of-them-online/