Better Business Bureau tells how to spot online shopping scams

Holiday shopping is in full swing for Cyber Monday. Online shopping scam reports to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Scam Tracker are just under the all-time highs reached last year, with losses this year approaching $380 million.

“Christmas is coming. Lots of people are shopping online. We want consumers to be really careful,” said Amie Mitchell with the BBB. “These scam artists have gotten really sophisticated and have developed really great websites where you can’t tell the difference if you’re at the actual retailer or at a scam website.”

Mitchell said these scammers entice you with hard to find items, low prices and fast delivery.

Nearly 36 percent of all online retail fraud reports to the BBB originated through a fake website, and scammers used social media and email to initiate about 40 percent of reported scams.

Mitchell said to look at the top of the URL and make sure you’re at the actual website. There shouldn’t be any type of prefix, it should just be the website address.

“We recommend that you go to the trusted site that you would normally go to when purchasing something,” said Mitchell.

Another red flag is something that’s deeply discounted. If you’re finding it normally priced around $99 and some places running hot sales offering it for $69 or $79, you should be suspicious if an online ad is offering it for $29 or $39.

“You’re probably dealing with a scam, especially if it’s a super hot item,” said Mitchell. “Remember, when shopping online pay with a credit card. If a business asks you to purchase a gift card to pay for something, don’t fall for it.”

You can also search the BBB’s website for a business profile, online reviews and even use a map app to verify the address, to make sure a business is real.