OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Black Friday and Cyber Monday start the shopping season but some people who already purchased online are discovering they bought into a scam.
While searching for something to greet guests at a special event, Sandy Bloomingdale came across a website where she bought four nine-foot-high artificial trees at a low price.
“I try to be very careful. I do research and it looked completely legitimate,” Sandy said.
But when the trees didn’t arrive, she checked the tracking number information at the post office.
“And even though it showed delivered, they can verify they never received it. It’s a scam I just got taken.”
A friend told Jim Hegarty with the Better Business Bureau about deals on a new website that could be a good fit.
“You could easily get caught up in the smoking deal that’s being offered here,” Hegarty said. “And the imagery because the imagery is very well done on this site.”
But click on “About Us” and you’ll see grammatical errors like “we has developed.”
While the professional appearance of the website might have some customers sold on its legitimacy, a closer look could provide a clue that ties it to a scam.
The fake website address bar says dot co. while the legitimate site shows dot com.
“Look for links that don’t work and if there’s no phony number where you can reach anybody, those are all the tips to the rip-offs,” Hegarty said.
Sandy hopes her fraud report will lead to a credit card credit.
“It makes you…
