Consumer Safety

1 in 3 Americans Has Experienced an Online Shopping Scam: Here’s How to Stay Safe If you’ve ever clicked a too-good-to-be-true deal and ended up with nothing to show for it, you’re far from alone. A new Pew Research Center report, published in late November 2025, found that about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That’s roughly 33% of U.S. adults – and the numbers are even higher for younger shoppers. ...

How to Spot and Avoid Online Shopping Scams This Year Online shopping is convenient, but it also attracts scammers looking to take advantage of shoppers. Government agencies—including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation—have issued warnings about rising fraud, particularly around holidays and seasonal sales. Veterans and seniors are often targeted, but anyone can fall victim to a well-crafted fake store or phishing email. ...

1 in 3 Americans Have Been Hit by an Online Shopping Scam – Here’s How to Avoid Being Next Online shopping has become so routine that it’s easy to forget how quickly things can go wrong. A new study from the Pew Research Center, published in November 2025, puts a number on that risk: about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That’s not a small fringe problem—it’s a widespread issue affecting millions of consumers. ...

Online Shopping Scams Are on the Rise — Here’s How to Stay Safe Shopping online is convenient, but it also opens the door to scammers. In January 2026, the Department of Veterans Affairs published a reminder for veterans and their families to watch out for scams and stay safe while online shopping. Around the same time, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation warned about fraudsters posing as banks. These government alerts underscore a simple reality: online shopping scams are becoming more common and more sophisticated. ...

1 in 3 Americans Has Been Scammed While Shopping Online. Here’s How to Protect Yourself According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That figure—roughly 33 percent of U.S. adults—is a stark reminder that fraudulent sellers and fake websites are not rare outliers. They are a routine hazard of buying goods over the internet. ...

1 in 3 Americans Have Faced an Online Shopping Scam: How to Protect Yourself If you’ve ever clicked “Buy Now” on a site that looked a little off, or sent money via a payment app for an item that never arrived, you’re far from alone. A new study from the Pew Research Center, released in late 2025, found that about a third of U.S. adults say they have personally experienced an online shopping scam. With holiday shopping reaching its peak, that number is likely to climb. Here’s what the data shows and, more importantly, what you can do to keep your money safe. ...

Online Shopping Scams Are on the Rise: How to Protect Yourself In May 2026, Belarusian authorities reported that citizens logged roughly 400 online shopping scam attempts in a single day. That number is striking, but it’s not an isolated case—similar spikes have been recorded in other countries over the past year. Whether you live in Minsk, Manchester, or Manila, the tactics used by fraudsters are increasingly similar, and the risk for ordinary shoppers is real. ...

Online Shopping Scams Are Surging—Here’s How to Spot and Avoid Them Last week, Belarusian authorities reported that consumers logged roughly 400 online shopping scam attempts in a single day. The figure, published by Belsat.eu, is striking—not because the number itself is massive on a national scale, but because it suggests a concentrated burst of fraud targeting ordinary people who were simply trying to buy something online. ...

1 in 3 Americans Has Been Scammed While Shopping Online — Are You Next? A new survey from the Pew Research Center, released in November 2025, puts a number on something many of us have suspected: online shopping scams are not rare. According to the data, about 31 percent of U.S. adults say they have personally experienced an online shopping scam. That’s nearly one in three people. ...

How to Spot Fake Prom Dress Websites: A Scam Alert for Online Shoppers If you’ve started shopping for prom or another formal event, you’ve probably noticed dozens of websites offering dresses at prices that look too good to be true. Recently, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued a specific alert about fake prom dress websites targeting shoppers in New York’s Hudson Valley. But this kind of scam isn’t limited to one region. As prom season heats up across the country, fraudulent clothing sites tend to multiply. Here’s what happened, why it matters, and how you can protect yourself—or your money—if you stumble into one of these traps. ...