RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) -After COVID-19 more people started working from home and started shopping online. With more people getting items shipped, more people are finding themselves the victims of scammers.
Shipping fraud. It was one of the top scams of 2021.
So what exactly is shipping fraud? Shipping fraud is defined as paying for your items online, but never receiving them.
According to TransUnion shipping fraud increased almost 800% worldwide in the past year.
“It can be really easy just to click on a few links, buy your product and have it delivered. And it does allow scammers to take advantage of us especially this time of year when we have extra packages being delivered,” said Jessie Schmidt, Vice President South Dakota Region, Better Business Bureau, INC.
A delivery scam can have many forms but often the text or email message will ask you to update delivery preferences or payment information, give a tracking link, or even a missed delivery notification. Some of these messages may come from scammers pretending to be FedEx, the postal service, UPS, and Amazon.
“If you get a text message even if you believe it’s from a known source, were going to tell you go check out that source independently and do a search,” said Schmidt
Clicking these links can download malware to your mobile device or computer. This gives hackers the opportunity to take your banking information, and your identity.
There are some steps you can take to protect yourself from package delivery…
