Holiday Scamming Season Is On! Part 1- Fake Website

The predictions are in. And experts believe Americans are going to open their wallets this holiday season. That’s the topic of today’s Consumer Alert. In fact, the National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend up to $989 billion, about $298 billion of which will be spent online. That’s about 30 percent.

Scammers follow consumer behavior. So, we see a rise in fake shipping notification scams during the holidays. You’ll see these usually as text messages. And experts warn we should look out for fake online stores or look-alike stores. Often scammers will create websites that look very much like the real store, but the web address will be misspelled or off by just a letter or two. For example, www.amaz0n.com instead of amazon.com or scammers create a site with what looks like the same address that’s then followed by another name and often a forward slash and a plethora of letters and numbers. For example: www.amazon.com.secure-site.com

Notice in this example of a scam site, that the domain name is not amazon.com. It’s actually “secure-site.com.”

Scam sites also might use a forward slash to redirect you to a scam site. You need to make sure the part of the URL after the forward slash matches the website you’re trying to land on. I refer to that scam information as the trash after the slash.

And if a site asks for payment through a peer-to-peer payment site like Venmo or Zelle, that’s a red flag.

“Only use Zelle to pay people you know and trust so that’s friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, or maybe someone who does work on your house. That’s a great way to use Zelle,” said Ben Chance, chief fraud risk management officer at Early Warning, the network operator of Zelle. “More broadly speaking, think about the way you’re protecting your bank account. Do not divulge your account number, or your bank information, and certainly never divulge your PIN or the one-time passcode that’s been sent to you by your financial service provider.”

Online peer-to-peer payment sites like Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App do not offer purchase protection. Thieves know that. So, if that’s the payment method, beware. Smart shopping is safe shopping.

Source: WHEC-TV