Avoiding Holiday Shopping Scams

Bloomberg

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00:00Good to have you on the program. You know, I'm always thinking that we're in this day and age

00:04where it can easily become victims of fraud or victims of scams. But

00:08why does it happen with increased frequency during heavy shopping seasons like Black Friday?

00:14Well, we're all busy and many of us are looking for extra deals and extra bargains this year,

00:19like you mentioned earlier, because of the tariffs. And with that, we're getting bombarded

00:25on social media with things that look really cool and hot. And we want to make sure we get

00:31the deal. We get it quickly before they run out. And don't forget, criminals and fraudsters now have

00:38AI as a tool at their fingertips. And so it's making it very cost effective for them to target

00:44you and me while we do our holiday shopping. Okay, so I want to get to what we can do to

00:47protect ourselves. But before we do that, Teresa, how are they using AI to target us? What does that

00:51look like? And how could that look differently than the scams that we're used to?

00:55Yeah, so they're basically reverse engineering websites that you or I might go to that are

01:00legitimate websites. And then they're doing things like a play on the name and then setting up

01:06imposter social media accounts and basically jumping into your feed. Then you follow this great deal.

01:13And then the next thing you know, you're buying from a scammer or a fraudster and not from the actual

01:17website that you think you're visiting. They're also spitting up businesses using bots to actually

01:24give themselves great reviews. So it all looks like it's on the up and up. But just a little bit

01:29of diligence and a little bit of research, you'll be able to figure out and spot the scam sites and

01:34the fraud sites pretty easily. Okay, you mentioned diligence and research. You shared with our team

01:38reputation checkers for websites. I'd never actually even heard of these or use them before.

01:43Should these be part of our diet when it comes to healthy shopping?

01:48Yeah, I love the fact that you brought this up because I personally use these websites,

01:54especially if I'm going to a site I've never ordered from before, even if I have a friend

01:58or relative tell me they've used this site. So things like scam advisor, URL void, trust pilot,

02:05and I will post these on my social media accounts. These websites will actually tell you how old the

02:11domain name is. It could be legitimately a brand new business, or it might be a scammer fraudster

02:17taking advantage of holidays. So it'll also tell you whether or not security companies or consumers

02:23have reported issues with these sites. And of course, old school still rules. The Better Business Bureau

02:30is a great place to check on a domain name as well.

02:33Okay, so I think that, you know, for me, at least, one area that I always think of as a backstop is

02:39the way I pay. And I'm only using credit cards on these websites, because I feel like if I have an

02:46issue, then I can just call my credit card company and they can protect me. Are people using other

02:53payment solutions that might not have that same level of protection?

02:56Yeah, this is the tough part. And I agree with you. I only use a credit card when I am shopping

03:02online. I do not use my debit card. I don't use gift cards to shop online. What's happening is a lot

03:10of these scam sites and fraud sites will say things like, we only accept Venmo or Zelle. We only accept

03:18gift cards. We only accept wire transfers. So they might say, well, for this to work, we're international.

03:25We have to have the wire transfer. These are red flags. When a merchant tells you they will only

03:30accept those forms of payment and they won't accept credit card, chances are you're dealing

03:35with a fraudster because they know the credit card companies will actually come after them and shut

03:40them down. So they want you to use these other forms of payment. Other red flags. Maybe a price is

03:46too good to be true. Yeah. So if you see things like 70 to 90 percent off during the holiday season,

03:54that is typically a red flag. Now, unless you're on sort of a household name website that you

04:00navigated to on your own, you didn't follow a link in social media, you didn't follow a link in an email

04:05or a text. So if it's too good to be true, also look at that domain name. When in doubt, there's a website

04:12called Virustotal.com. You can use it for free. Copy and paste that website in there and it'll actually

04:18evaluate the URL and tell you whether or not you might be dealing with a scam site.

04:23Okay, Teresa, before we let you go, if you do somehow become a victim of not necessarily a cyber

04:29attack, but maybe an attack on on your identity or some sort of scam, what should be the first thing

04:34you do? Yeah. First thing you do is you want to call your bank. So whatever payment method you use,

04:40you need to lock down your life. The next thing to think about is actually you can report it at the

04:45FBI to IC3.gov and the FTC to FTC.gov. But also there is a nonprofit resource that is free to use

04:53called the Identity Resource Theft Center. It's a great nonprofit. I've referred people there and they

05:00will actually give you a checklist. You can talk to a real human being and work on getting your peace

05:05of mind and your identity back.

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