#7 speed reading scam free#

Real retailers take great care with their online presentation.

Shoddy website design or sloppy English.

Internet security firm Norton says to be on guard if discounts exceed 55 percent. You need not forgo the ease and endless selection of online shopping, but take precautions to make sure you get what you pay for. consumers are concerned about the security of their personal and financial information when buying something online, only 15 percent could correctly answer at least 7 of 10 true/false questions about safe shopping practices.

These seasonal super sales bring a plethora of deceptive ads, phishing messages and lookalike shopping sites, the BBB warns.Ī November 2020 AARP survey found that while 72 percent of U.S. Not surprisingly, these frauds flourish during the holiday season, and during major shopping events such as Amazon's Prime Day. More often, you’ll wait in vain for your purchase to arrive.Īnd your losses might not stop there: Scammers may seed phony sites, apps, or links in pop-up ads and email coupons with malware that infects your device and harvests personal information for use in identity theft. Some of these copycats do deliver merchandise - shoddy knockoffs worth less than even the “discount” price advertised as a once-in-a-lifetime deal on, say, Tiffany watches or Timberland boots.

#7 speed reading scam free#

They offer popular items at a fraction of the usual cost and promise perks like free shipping and overnight delivery, exploiting the premium online shoppers put on price and speed. Some faux e-stores are invented from whole cloth, but many mimic trusted retailers, with familiar logos and slogans and a URL that’s easily mistaken for the real thing. The typical shopping scam starts with a bogus website, mobile app or, increasingly, a social media ad (a BBB study found that 40 percent of online shopping scams reported to the organization originate on Facebook or Instagram).