We’re well into the holiday gift-purchasing season with fewer than three weeks before Christmas. December is also the busiest month of the year for online scams. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-FIerro has more.
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Last year, the e-commerce website Statistia.com estimated that 74.3% of Americans made at least one online purchase last year. When you combine that with 72% of Americans using some form of social media, you have 100’s of millions of residents scrolling through ads in their social media feeds. The majority of the advertising is from legit businesses that will send what you order.
Others, like ads for free trials, are phishing scams that will never follow up, and when you want to cancel, you’re unable to. Pam Hernandez of the Better Business Bureau in Springfield says this is a common scam that’s amplified during the holiday season due to the number of people making online purchases.
“It’s not what they paid for; they are not getting products. They are getting charged monthly and what it says is a free trial. So looking up these companies if you’re not familiar with them, you’ve not done business with them before.”
If you think you’ve been scammed, visit the BBB’s Scam Tracker to see if other consumers have had the same experience. More information at bbb.org/scamtracker. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro
