If your favorite part of the season is kicking back and adding items to your cart—you’re not alone. According to the National Retail Federation’s forecast for the 2022 holiday season, online and other non-store sales are expected to increase between 10% and 12% to between $262.8 billion and $267.6 billion. This figure is up from $238.9 billion last year, which saw a significant boost from consumers who were taking precautions against COVID-19 by staying away from crowded brick-and-mortar stores.
The downside: Online shopping can pose its own risks. Especially if you’re not keeping a close eye on your transactions.
How common is fraud while online shopping?
In 2021, more than one in three U.S. adults received fake shipping notifications or experienced fraud buying a product through an ad online, according to an AARP survey.
The two most common types of scams, according to the FBI, are nondelivery and nonpayment scams. A nondelivery scam is when a consumer pays for goods or services they find online, but never actually receives those items. A nonpayment scam involves goods or services being shipped, but the seller is never paid. A 2021 report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center found that nonpayment or nondelivery scams cost people more than $337 million. Credit card fraud accounted for another $173 million in losses.
These scams don’t just happen around the holidays. Fraudsters can get creative year-round.
“They’ll tailor the…
