Tips To Avoid Scammers This Holiday Season

The BBB (Better Business Burea) is warning consumers about scammers this holiday season and has dropped a few tips that can help prevent you from being robbed of your hard-earned cash. These tips should hopefully give you a fighting chance against the wave of evil scammers that prey on unsuspecting people just looking to enjoy the holidays. With the bulk of gifts being purchased online this year, the BBB has picked up on what you should and shouldn't do when buying online this season.

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 “This year will definitely be the largest year when it comes to quantities for shopping online or in store,” Sara Kemerer, public relations specialist with the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau. Source:NBC25.com

Tip 1: Shop with a credit card. “When you shop with a credit card, this gives you the best chance to dispute a payment in case you believe you got scammed.

Tip 2: Make Sure Your URL has 'https' in it. "When you're looking at a URL, make sure you have 'https.' That 's' is super important because that 's' stands for secure, and we only want to purchase from secure websites,”

Tip 3: Don't buy products off social media. Clicking links on social media could redirect you to a harmful site. Source:NBC25.com

To see the full list of tips from the BBB just click here. The best thing you can do is second guess everything you see online. Especially if you see a deal that seems too good to be true. I had a friend that got scammed out of some money trying to buy a food trailer off craigslist. They tricked him by making him put the down payment on a disposable debit card and he was dumb enough to pay some money before he saw the trailer in person. The post wasn't real and my friend was scammed $800 because he thought it was a really good deal. Just don't be afraid to ask questions, and if it feels even a little bit shady, get out of there. You can always find what you're looking for somewhere else.