TULSA, Okla. — A new report shows a spike in online scams and FOX23 has the most common ways consumers are falling victim.
More and more of us don’t answer calls from numbers we don’t recognize, meaning you’re less likely to be targeted with a phone call.
“All those spam phone calls that we hit ignore, ignore, ignore, consumers are starting not to answer phone calls that they don’t recognize,” said Amie Mitchell with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
But now, Mitchell said scams have shifted to being online.
So far this year, 75% of all scams reported, that involved losing money, were perpetrated online. The BBB said the average amount lost is $800.
The new report from the BBB said the number one place people report being targeted by an online scam is social media.
“In the beginning social media was just about family and friends, and now social media has really become part of the internet where you find goods and services, where you actually do purchase products, so we’ve come to trust those sites more,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said scammers have gotten sophisticated.
“Fake websites or fake ads to make you click on something looking like a really legitimate company, they’ve gotten really good at it,” she said.
Mitchell gave advice on avoiding those scams.
“But we really do have to step back and go, ‘Wait a minute is this somebody trying to scam me?’,” she said.
Mitchell also advised going to trustworthy websites.
“It’s better to step back, go to the actual website that you know is trusted and purchase from there,” she said.
The BBB said the age of victims losing the most money has shifted. People between the ages of 18 and 24 report the highest median dollar loss for online purchase scams so far this year, up almost 26% over last year.
If you would like to report a scam, click here for the BBB Scam Tracker.
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