With major shopping days right around the corner, consumers need to be on the lookout for any suspicious offers they may receive online.

According to a recent Nielsen poll, this year, nearly half of Americans will do their holiday shopping online.

And with that traffic comes the increased risk of holiday-shopping related scams.

And while you're busy trying to find that hot deal you have been waiting for.

Somewhere, a scammer is waiting for you, to buy in to their plan.

"The holidays area  busy and distracting time." said Public Relations Director at the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania ,Pam Marlowe. "And with all of the ads and shopping and food an family and what not. Scammers will try to capitalize on those distractions."

Scams come in all forms,  from your email to your phone. Normally, they will pretend to be popular brands,  asking you to wire money, either through a gift card or your credit card. And the scams affect just about every demographic.

"We often see seniors most targeted by scams. Seniors most often fall for scams in Pennsylvania." said Marlowe "However, we're seeing the younger crowds like millennial and young adults fall  victim more often than seniors because of all the online scams."

The BBB reported the following:

In the past year, the most popular scams reported in Western PA have been:

1. Phishing Scams - 28% of all scams reported were Email Scams.

2. Sweepstakes/Lottery Scams at 9% 

3. Online Purchase Scams at 7%

No matter where you do your holiday browsing, Marlowe offered up some tips so that you can shop safer.

"They can check out companies and they can check out offers with the Better Business Bureau." said Marlowe "We review websites, and so if someone is thinking about buying something from a website they've never bought from before,they can look up that website on our website and see reviews and customer complaints from the past three year so they can get an idea of what kind of  experience past costumers have had with the website. And so, that will help identify online purchase scams once you review a website from a trusted resource."

To find or a report a scam. you can find that here

For website reviews, click here


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