With millions of people shopping online for Christmas, scammers ramp up their fraudulent activity. The FBI reports shoppers lost $173 millionto credit card scams in 2021. Scams where people either didn’t receive goods they bought, or didn’t receive payment for goods they sold totalled $337 million. Everybody loves a bargain and scammers know it.
This year’s “Scam de Jour” is the fake seller scam. It works something like this…
The scammer creates a listing for a popular product on what appears to be a major retailer’s website at a deeply discounted price. They add fake reviews to make it convincing. The buyer makes a purchase and never receives the product. They may go as far as providing false tracking information. By the time the victim realizes they’ve been scammed, the listing is gone. Look out for prices too good to be true and nothing but five star reviews. Look for “Ships from” or “Sold by” information. Go directly to that vendor’s website. Remember, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.
Source: pcmag.com
Blog by Steve Wiley