How To Shop Safely on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

With many social media sites incorporating shopping into their platforms, it’s all too easy to stumble across fraudulent ads, fake seller profiles, and bogus listings. The safer option is to avoid making purchases through these sites, where your personal information is more easily accessible.

Spammers have gotten really good at creating official-looking messages that pretend to provide an order update or warning that you must act quickly to update your account information. Never click on a link in a text or email that you’re not sure about. Instead, go to the alleged sender’s official website and log in to your account or call the seller to see if there really is an issue.

If a deal seems a little too good, it could be bad news. Unscrupulous sites will often feature surprisingly large savings on hard-to-get items, or big discounts on brands that don’t normally offer sales. You may end up paying for something that never ships or getting a cheap knock-off version of the real product.

• Always type a seller’s web address directly in your web browser instead of clicking on links in an email or text.
• If you suspect fraud, you can alert the seller that’s being impersonated and file a fraud report with the FTC.