Yahoo Finance 5 Red Flags To Watch For When Holiday Shopping
According to the FBI, 12,000 victims reported losing a combined $73 million to shopping scams during the 2022 holiday season alone. Over the course of the entire year, Americans lost $281 million to online shopping and delivery swindles. And with the National Retail Federation predicting record-high spending this year approaching $1 trillion, you can bet that rip-off artists will prowl for every dollar they can get their hands on over the next three weeks.
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The Scams
Here’s a look at the most common holiday scams according to organizations like the Better Business Bureau, FTC and FBI.
Social media shopping scams: Ads and posts on Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites purport to be holiday promotions for discounted merchandise from reputable retailers — but they’re not. Consumers pay for a product that never arrives because a scammer impersonating a legitimate seller posted the ad.
Email shopping scams: Many victims have reported receiving emails with special offers that appear to be from legitimate retailers but are actually from scammers. The culprits are phishing for personal information or attempting to get the target to pay for merchandise they’ll never receive.
Package delivery scams: Someone pretending to be a delivery driver attempting to deliver a package sends a text asking for personal information to confirm they’re the correct recipient. Alternatively, an email or text about a missed delivery might contain a bogus tracking number or other malicious link that the scammer tells the target to click to receive their package.
Supermarket clearance scams: Victims see an ad from a well-known supermarket that’s going out of business and offloading its inventory for huge markdowns, typically 70% to 90% off. Clicking the ad leads to a convincing-looking but fraudulent mimic of the real supermarket’s website, where countdown timers and dwindling inventory counters pressure victims to buy quickly before supplies run out.
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The Red Flags
Most holiday shopping scams come with telltale warning signs. Learn how to spot them to avoid contributing to the tens of millions of dollars that fraudsters will steal this holiday season.
If It Sounds Too Good To Be True …
The oldest red flag is still the most telling, and one that is a hallmark of virtually every holiday shopping scam — a deal that is too good to be true.
“If an email is received with an unbelievable offer, don’t believe it,” said online misinformation expert Garry Paxinos, creator of NOOZ.ai, a news aggregator that uses artificial intelligence to help readers identify bias.
Requests To Click a Link or Ad
Scammers usually need you to take action for them to steal money or personal information. Often, that action is clicking an ad on social media or a link in an email or text. No matter how legitimate it appears, don’t do it.
“Contact the vendor directly using published telephone numbers and not any number in the email,” said Paxinos. “Same with text messages and phone calls. Never respond directly. Always contact using published means. For example, I’ve received fraud alerts from Amex. I did not click on the link, but rather called the number on my card to verify.”
Requests for Alternative Payment Methods
Never trust a seller that demands payment with gift cards or through a p2p service like Zelle. They’re nonrefundable and largely untraceable. The same goes for requests for wire transfers or cryptocurrency as the only available payment method.
Requests for Personal Information
Never respond to requests for personal information from shipping companies or retailers. Instead, contact them directly using their published phone number or email address to see if the request is legitimate. It doesn’t matter how authentic the request appears — scammers have gotten more sophisticated and are less likely to telegraph their intentions with sloppy grammar and shady URLs.
“I don’t even believe real-looking URLs for two reasons,” said Paxinos. “It may be a hidden URL — the link in the email is not the actual link as it is embedded in an tag. Or the new game of using different fonts, such as a Russian ‘a’ instead of an English ‘a.’ It looks right, but is a different website. Fraudsters are getting more and more creative and a lot of their messages are beginning to look real. Gone, mostly, are the days of poor grammar and misspellings that made it obvious.”
Intense Pressure To Buy Now
Too-good-to-be-true offers are half of what makes many holiday scams so successful — the other half is intense pressure to take the scammers up on their fake deal before they end or their imaginary limited inventory disappears. Always be suspicious of hard-sell tactics designed to get you to pay before you have time to think it over or conduct due diligence on the seller or product.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 5 Red Flags To Watch For When Holiday Shopping
