Fake Stores Imposters and Other Online Shopping Scams
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Cybercriminals are keeping pace. Online purchasing is the most common scam type reported to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), accounting for 37 percent of complaints to the BBB's Scam Tracker in 2021, and the riskiest, with 3 in 4 victims reporting a monetary loss. An by Javelin Strategy & Research found that 29 percent of consumers ages 50 and over have been stung by online shopping scams.
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. The typical shopping scam starts with a bogus website, mobile app or, increasingly, a social media ad (a found that 40 percent of online shopping scams reported to the organization originate on Facebook or Instagram). Some faux e-stores are invented from whole cloth, but many mimic trusted retailers, with familiar logos and slogans and a URL that’s easily mistaken for the real thing. They offer popular items at a fraction of the usual cost and promise perks like free shipping and overnight delivery, exploiting the premium online shoppers put on price and speed. Some of these copycats do deliver merchandise — shoddy knockoffs worth less than even the “discount” price advertised as a once-in-a-lifetime deal on, say, Tiffany watches or Timberland boots. More often, you’ll wait in vain for your purchase to arrive. And your losses might not stop there: Scammers may seed phony sites, apps, or links in pop-up ads and email coupons with malware that infects your device and harvests personal information for use in . Not surprisingly, these frauds flourish during the , and during major shopping events such as Amazon's . These seasonal super sales bring a plethora of deceptive ads, and lookalike shopping sites, . found that while 72 percent of U.S. consumers are concerned about the security of their personal and financial information when buying something online, only 15 percent could correctly answer at least 7 of 10 true/false questions about safe shopping practices. You need not forgo the ease and endless selection of online shopping, but take precautions to make sure you get what you pay for.
Online Shopping Scams
Beware Online Shopping Scams The share of shopping that consumers do online has been growing for years, and the sent the trend into hyperdrive. Ecommerce sales topped $870 billion in 2021, an increase of more than 50 percent from 2019, according to retail research firm Digital Commerce 360.Cybercriminals are keeping pace. Online purchasing is the most common scam type reported to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), accounting for 37 percent of complaints to the BBB's Scam Tracker in 2021, and the riskiest, with 3 in 4 victims reporting a monetary loss. An by Javelin Strategy & Research found that 29 percent of consumers ages 50 and over have been stung by online shopping scams.
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. The typical shopping scam starts with a bogus website, mobile app or, increasingly, a social media ad (a found that 40 percent of online shopping scams reported to the organization originate on Facebook or Instagram). Some faux e-stores are invented from whole cloth, but many mimic trusted retailers, with familiar logos and slogans and a URL that’s easily mistaken for the real thing. They offer popular items at a fraction of the usual cost and promise perks like free shipping and overnight delivery, exploiting the premium online shoppers put on price and speed. Some of these copycats do deliver merchandise — shoddy knockoffs worth less than even the “discount” price advertised as a once-in-a-lifetime deal on, say, Tiffany watches or Timberland boots. More often, you’ll wait in vain for your purchase to arrive. And your losses might not stop there: Scammers may seed phony sites, apps, or links in pop-up ads and email coupons with malware that infects your device and harvests personal information for use in . Not surprisingly, these frauds flourish during the , and during major shopping events such as Amazon's . These seasonal super sales bring a plethora of deceptive ads, and lookalike shopping sites, . found that while 72 percent of U.S. consumers are concerned about the security of their personal and financial information when buying something online, only 15 percent could correctly answer at least 7 of 10 true/false questions about safe shopping practices. You need not forgo the ease and endless selection of online shopping, but take precautions to make sure you get what you pay for.