Atlanta Mail

Worried About Online Shopping Scams? You Should Be

If you think you’re safe just browsing the internet for gift ideas, think again. Scammers are trolling your searches to identify which products shoppers are looking for. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If no one else has that product, and it’s a great price, just be very careful and proceed with caution.” says Melissa Lanning Trumpower, the Executive Director of the Better Business Bureau’s Institute for Marketplace.

“Online purchase scams were in the top three riskiest scams for the third year in a row," says Trumpower. "When COVID hit, then it became very clear that this was becoming even riskier because people were increasing their online presence.” Each year, her team puts together a report that identifies the riskiest scams for consumers and this year’s report shows buying online continues to be one of the biggest offenders.

So before you start shopping, make sure you have the tools and information you need to keep yourself safe and your personal information secure. When you create accounts online, use a different password for every account. That way if your password gets compromised on one account, the attacker will not be able to break into all your other accounts. Some of the best ways to protect yourself and your personal information is to stick with websites and vendors you’re familiar with, do your research on those you haven’t heard of before and be smart about the way you set up your accounts. Completely random passwords are safest, but they tend to be harder to remember. Write them down in a safe place or use a password manager program.

When to comes to credit cards, the BBB’s study reveals that some payment methods are safer than others. “Make sure that when you do enter a payment that you’re using a credit card or PayPal. Those are the two payments methods that didn’t lose as much money,” she says. “When people were using non-traceable payment methods, they were more likely to not get their money back or lose money.” The FTC adds that credit card companies also let you dispute unauthorized charges or temporarily withhold payment when you suspect you’ve fallen victim to a scam.