As the holiday shopping rush begins with Black Friday, online scammers are stepping up their efforts to target shoppers. A Forbes report has revealed that fraudulent websites have increased by 89% compared to last year, with almost 80% of shopping-related emails flagged as scams. Even trusted Google search results are being manipulated to lead users to harmful sites.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a warning to online shoppers, highlighting steps to protect yourself from these scams during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the rest of the holiday season. This alert is especially important for users of popular web browsers like Chrome, Safari and Edge, which dominate 95% of the US market. Shoppers are urged to remain vigilant and follow safety tips to avoid falling victim to these threats.
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The investigative agency warns that “when shopping online during the holiday season or any time of year, always be wary of deals that seem too good to be true. Don’t become a scammer’s next victim. Every year, thousands People Become Victims of Holiday Scams Scammers can rob you of your hard-earned money, personal information and, not least, your festive mood.”
According to the precautionary measures outlined in the statement released on the FBI’s official website, cyber scams include:
- Non-delivery scams, where you pay for goods or services you find online, but you never receive your goods.
- Non-payment scams, where you ship purchased goods or services, but you never get paid for them
- Auction fraud, where a product you purchased was misrepresented on the auction site
- Gift card fraud, where a seller asks you to pay with a pre-paid card
According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2023 report, non-payment and non-delivery scams cost people more than $309 million that year. An additional $173 million was lost due to credit card fraud. IC3 receives a large volume of complaints in the early months of each year, suggesting a connection with past holiday season shopping scams.
