LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Online shopping surged over Black Friday weekend, and it’s expected to continue on Cyber Monday. That means scammers will be ready to pounce on anyone who lets their guard down, but the Better Business Bureau has some tips to keep you from becoming a victim.
Whitney Adkins, the Director of Strategic Marketing at the Louisville Better Business Bureau, say advertisers are sending emails enticing people with bargains earlier each year, “as stores try to build up that excitement early on.”
Although the BBB hasn’t yet received reports of any specific scams locally, Adkins says “that doesn’t mean that we won’t, it just means that consumers haven’t reported them to us yet, but they may do so in the weeks ahead.”
Adkins strongly encourages shoppers to report any irregular business practices by filing a complaint at bbb.org or by reporting a scam on the site’s scam tracker system.
On Cyber Monday, Adkins has the following recommendations:
- Be extra cautious when opening emails.
- Beware of lookalike sites that may look exactly like an authentic retailer with just a slight change in the url.
- Always go directly to a retailer’s site instead of clicking on a link in an email.
- Never give out your financial or banking information unless you know for certain the site is secure.
- Use a credit card instead of a debit card when shopping online because it is a secure transaction and you can dispute charges if there’s a problem.
- As always, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Follow the above tips, and don’t let the rush to find a good deal cause a slip-up.
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