MyChargeBack Warns Consumers to Beware Online Holiday Shopping, Auction, Charity, and Travel Scams

In advance of the coming holiday season, MyChargeBack, the world leader in fund recovery for victims of online scams, is warning consumers that scammers are ready and waiting to cash in on their purchases. In particular, this year MyChargeBack advises to look out for URL redirects that point to fake “mirror” websites that duplicate the content, look, and function of their legitimate counterparts.

“In the United States, the National Retail Federation estimates that holiday-related retail sales between Thanksgiving, “Black Friday” and Christmas will grow between 3.8% and 4.2% this year and reach as high as $730.7 billion,” notes MyChargeBack COO Amir Cohen. “Just be aware that internet scammers are relying on sophisticated strategies and technologies in order to capture a share of that.”

One of the more common ways scammers deceive shoppers is by blanketing them with spoofed emails and publishing ads in the social media. Those emails and ads contain links to fake websites they set up that mirror those of major retailers by employing techniques such as URL redirection and cloaking. Among the companies that have been victimized in this way are Amazon and eBay.

MyChargeBack advises consumers to verify with merchants that they indeed sent the email offer before making any online transaction. Otherwise, shoppers may think they have ordered presents from these legitimate online portals even though they did not. Instead, their money went directly to the operators of these online shopping and auction scams. In addition, by handing their names, addresses and credit card numbers over to anonymous scammers online, innocent consumers are likely to be victimized twice. “Scammers are inventive and take advantage of every opportunity they have,” Cohen says. “The ultimate objective of many of the myriad scams they operate during the holiday season is to steal your identity.”

MyChargeBack reminds consumers, however, that Internet scammers do not only target shoppers buying presents for the holidays at this time of year. They also peddle travel prize scams and vacation and holiday scams that entice you into buying cut-rate air flights and packages that either turn out to be nightmares or simply do not exist. “Holiday travel is subject to mirror websites, too,” Cohen adds. “Even Airbnb’s website has been spoofed.”

Finally, because the holidays remind us of those who are less fortunate, they are prime time for charity scams. What can confuse donors is that scam charities tend to have names that are deliberate take-offs on legitimate ones.

“If you are unfamiliar with a particular appeal for funds, check to make sure that it’s run by a legitimate charitable organization,” Cohen advises. “That can easily be done online because legitimate charities are registered as tax-exempt,” he explains. “You can verify if an American charity is tax-exempt on the IRS website and a British one on the Charity Register website.”