Amazon launched its first annual Prime Day event in 2015. Since then, many retailers have followed its lead in offering noteworthy shopping deals in July. More deals are great for consumers, and more people out shopping is great for businesses — large and small.
This year, Amazon has selected July 16th and 17th as Prime Days. Given that this has become a key shopping time, the Better Business Bureau reminds shoppers to avoid getting so caught up in the excitement that you fall victim to phishing scams, misleading advertisements and/or lookalike websites.
Online retail scams still lead the list of fraud types reported to BBB Scam Tracker, accounting for more than 41% of submissions in 2023. Ensure you know what to look for when shopping online for the big sales in July.
Here’s BBB’s tips for safe shopping:
Research the seller or retailer. Before you buy, check customer reviews of the product you’re interested in purchasing and do some research on the retailer. Be sure you can find contact information for the seller and make note of it. Look up the retailer on BBB.org to check for their BBB rating, see if they are BBB accredited, and to review their customer experience record on BBB’s profile.
Watch for email and text phishing attempts, especially if they appear to come from a popular retailer or delivery service. Phishing increases during known busy shopping times. These messages may claim that you have a gift waiting or that there’s a problem with delivery.
BBB encourages shoppers to be proactive in tracking your purchases by noting delivery dates, where they’re coming from and assigned tracking numbers. Be extremely careful with unexpected messages about gifts or delivery issues, especially if they contain a link. You never want to open a link unless you’re absolutely sure that the message, sender and site are valid.
It’s safer to visit the delivery carrier’s website directly or log in if you have an account with the retailer that includes package tracking tools.
Watch out for social media ads and lookalike websites. You may come across ads that appear to be for a trusted retailer offering great deals. But when looking more closely at the URL, you may notice that the domain name is slightly different.
You should be able to hover over an URL to see the actual web address to which it will direct. By visiting the wrong website, you could open your phone or computer up to malware or spyware. At the very least, if you visit an impostor site, you may unknowingly be providing personal and financial information with someone who will happily steal your ID and your money.
You can research the age of the domain for the website to verify when it was created, and it’s best to watch for other telltale signs including bad grammar, no company address and/or no customer service number.
Professional photos do not mean it’s a real offer. Keep in mind that photos can be stolen from other websites, so don’t believe what you see. BBB has received several reports of impostor websites where the scammer copied a trusted brand’s photos and logo to make them appear legitimate. If logos or other images on the website appear blurry, take that as a red flag.
Make sure the website is secure. Don’t enter important personal information or payment information without confirming that a website is secure. Look for the “https” in the URL (the “s” is for “secure”) and a small lock icon on the address bar. Never enter payment or personal information into a website with only “http.” It is not secure.
Be careful when purchasing sought-after products. If something is sold out everywhere, don’t be tempted by a seemingly great deal. Scammers often trick shoppers by claiming to offer the most popular products at low prices.
Pay with a credit card. We can’t mention this enough. It’s always best to make online purchases with your credit card. If you run into issues with your order, or questionable charges pop up later, you can contest them through your credit card company. Be very wary of any retailer that asks you to pay by digital wallet apps, prepaid money cards or other non-traditional payment methods. These are red flags for scams and leave no paper trail.
If you’ve spotted an online scam (or a scam by phone or mail), please report it to BBB Scam Tracker.
You can reach our team at BBB serving Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia at 423-266-6144 or by email at tngabbb@chattanooga.bbb.org.
SHRED DAY
Mark Your Calendar for BBB’s Fall Shred Day on Oct. 5.
A proactive step toward protecting your identity is to safely shred unneeded documents and/or hard drives that contain personally identifiable information and banking information. You can do this for free at BBB’s next Shred Day.
The bi-annual event will be held from 9 a.m.-noon in the parking lot of Coca Cola Bottling Co. at 2111 W. Shepherd Road in Chattanooga. (Location is near Exit 1A/Airport off Highway 153).
In addition to bringing paper documents and hard drives for destruction, electronics can also be brought for recycling and outdated or unneeded prescription drugs can be dropped off for safe disposal.
Please limit documents to three large trash bags per person, and limit hard drives to four per person. For more information, please visit bbb.org/Chattanooga or call your BBB at 423-266-6144.
Thank you to our event partners: Resource 1 Tier 3 Data Security, Hamilton County Coalition, River City Shredding, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Cumulus Media Chattanooga, First Horizon Bank and Coca Cola Bottling Co.
Michele Mason is president of the Better Business Bureau in Chattanooga.
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