POSTED: Monday, November 28, 2011 - 11:23pm
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 10:33am
TYLER — As Cyber Monday takes the world by storm again this year, East Texan Eddie Smith will have no part of it.
He's doing his shopping the old fashioned way -- at brick and mortar stores.
"I don't do any at all if I can help, because I don't trust it...if I can't see it, I ain't buying it," Smith said.
Regardless, many Americans are shopping online -- and scammers are waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of them.
Mechele Mills with the Better Business Bureau tells KETK, scammers often send out e-mails luring you to their limited-time-only, and often too-good-to-be true deals.
"You know, advertisements that make you think, 'okay they spent a lot of time on this, it must be real.' You click on it, they either steal your information or you download a virus or they get your personal information and, again, it's gone the next day," Mills said.
Mills says scams like that can also come in the form of text messages or e-mails that claim they're from a shipping service like Fed-Ex or UPS -- hoping you did buy something and will click on the fake link thinking your tracking the item you just bought.
"You know, always shop with companies you're familiar with. And you initiate that contact, you go to those websites, you type in that URL, instead of them initiating contact with you," Mills said.
Mills also says it's better to do online business with a credit card instead of a debit card.
Another simple way to check the legitimacy of a web page -- make sure when you're making a purchase that where the website usually says http:// -- it says https://
The *s* stands for secure.
Around 150 counterfeit Cyber Monday websites were recently seized by the feds.
But if you do come across a fishy looking deal, the BBB will be able to shed some light on it for you.
Click here to visit their website. [1]