Better Business Bureau aware folks of holiday scams

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Scam experts are raising caution to potential scams during the holiday season. 

“With Cyber Monday coming, we know that’s the busiest online shopping day of the year, and actually, online shopping scams have become the number one thing reported to us on our scam tracker page. So we know that there’s already a lot of scams working,” said Michele Mason, President of the Better Business Bureau,  

The Better Business Bureau expects online shopping scams to increase 125 percent compared to 2023. 

The National Retail Federation estimates consumers will spend more than 900 billion dollars in sales throughout the holidays. 

Mason believes it is important that people shop wisely for Christmas. 

“We want you to have your money to support those in need and not lose it to scammers. We find online shopping scams all year round, FTC identified last year as a ten billion dollar loss in that industry,” said Mason. “So it is really important that people pay attention. Scams are not going away, we just have to stay aware of them so we don’t fall victim to them.”

While Shopping, Mason also says be aware of scams on Social media. 

“Be careful about ads that pop up on Instagram or Facebook. You have to do the same research as you would with any other company, but be very careful, because scammers are hoping that we are going to be so busy we are going to not recognize when something is an imposter or a scam versus a reputable business,” said Mason. 

And as Christmas is quickly approaching, Mason offers tips to prevent yourself from being scammed

“It sounds too good to be true. It probably is. We see a lot of sites that just pop up just to learn someone, get your payment information, your personal information, and then disappear. We always encourage you to use your credit card for payment. It gives you the best protection and makes sure your antivirus software is up to date on your computers as well,” Mason concluded.