LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — We all know Thanksgiving week brings the biggest shopping days of the year with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and where there are shoppers, there are scammers.
Online retailers call it "scam season." Credit card companies call it "fraud season." No matter what you call it, 'tis the season for criminals to target you and your wallet.
The ring of a register has been replaced with the clack of a keyboard as online shopping now dominates commerce, although convenience comes with caveats.
Henderson resident and online scam victim Terri Hampton notes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it's a scam."
But many scams are cleverly cloaked, and Hampton has learned that hard. Living now on a fixed income, she struggles to pay bills after falling victim to several online scams. One promised a lot if she gave a little and helped attract other investors.
"You invest $100, get $2,000, and make a video. And I thought, $2,000, oh, thank you! That's a gift from God!" she said. "I can pay off my car, I can get caught up on my credit cards, I can do this!"
But it was no gift — just a scam asking for more and more fees to release her supposed reward.
"I lost $4,000 on that," she said.
Data collected from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center and the Federal Trade Commission shows Nevada ranked 19th in the nation last year with 9,090 victims losing $127 million to online scams.
So, what should you look out for this holiday season as you shop online?
1. Beware of fake stores.
Scammers are advertising incredible deals on social media. Once you click the link, it takes you to a look-a-like website of a major brand. Any gifts purchased will never arrive. 13 Investigates found one where the customer thought he was buying New Balance sneakers on a flash sale. But the website address at the top was newbalancesport.top, as opposed to the real site, newbalance.com. The sale was a scam, and the shoes never came.
You can avoid this kind of scam by triple-checking the spelling of the URL. Fake sites can be as tricky as being just one letter off.
2. Fake gift cards
Gift cards are a great holiday gift, and people can save money by purchasing gift cards from resale sites. However, scammers on these sites sell gift cards that arrive with no balance.
How to avoid it? Perform a reverse search to verify the seller's identity.
3. Fake shipping notifications
Scammers are capitalizing on the increased number of packages delivered during the holidays by emailing or texting a delivery notification with a supposed "tracking link," a phishing link used for identity theft.
How to avoid: only track packages on the official UPS, U.S. Postal Service, or FedEx website.
A major credit card company representative says it's important to know the difference between fraud and scam.
The way they define it? Fraud is when your information is stolen and used for unauthorized purchases. The credit card company can almost always help with that.
But, with a scam, when you choose to purchase something through what turns out to be a fake ad or link—say on social media—the responsibility may be on you when you dispute the charge.
