Tri-Cities, Wash. – Many people are doing their holiday shopping right now. Scammers are using the impulse to buy cheap online as an opportunity to steal your money and even personal information.
Special Agent Ethan Via with Complex Financial Crime Squad said with how many reports they get every day one of the best things they can do is raise people’s defenses and prevent scams from happening.
“Fraudsters are consummate re-gifters if you will, there’s nothing new to what’s happening right now, this time of year, it’s just they’re repackaging their lies to sort of work in the holiday environment,” Via said.
He said to look out for deals that are too good to be true and be cognizant of deals that rush you to check out.
In many cases, victims don’t know they’ve been scammed until months after according to Via.
Last year almost 32% of scams reported to the Better Business Bureau were online shopping scams.
Logan Hickle with the BBB recommends if you are shopping online, especially on social media, looking at who you’re buying from closely.
“Go to their profile – make sure that it’s verified. Make sure it’s the actual legitimate brand,” he said. “Take a look at those comments. What are people saying? Are they saying they never received products? Are they saying they can’t get a hold of customer service?”
The BBB has a website to check if the business you’re trying to buy from is legitimate or if other people have encountered a similar scam.
Hickle and Via said scammers aren’t always after your money at first.
Sometimes they work to steal your information to use at a later date.
If you don’t plan on using your credit for the next six months, he recommends freezing your credit if you do find yourself scammed and think your information is compromised.
“That way no one can take a car loan out another credit card, even we’ve seen home loans -out as you,” Hickle said.
The FBI also has a website,IC3.Gov, where you can report fraud and scams as well.
Via said the site gets around 2,500 reports a day which are used in investigations.
“That’s how we sort of tie what look like those small dollar amounts, $500 from this victim $2000 from this victim, tie these cases into a larger investigation that the FBI can actually sink their teeth into and go after these big groups,” he said.
