Digital Safety

How to Spot Online Shopping Scams and Stay Safe This Season Online shopping has become a routine part of life, but the convenience comes with risks that change every year. Scammers are getting better at impersonating trusted retailers, banks, and even government agencies. Recent warnings from the VA, FTC, and FBI show that shopping fraud is not limited to the holidays — it happens year-round, and it targets everyone, including veterans and military families. ...

A Third of Americans Have Been Scammed Shopping Online: Here’s How to Avoid It New data from the Pew Research Center, published in late 2025, found that roughly one in three U.S. adults say they have experienced an online shopping scam. That figure is not just a headline: it reflects a problem that touches millions of households, and one that continues to evolve as scammers adapt to new platforms and payment methods. ...

How to Spot and Avoid Online Shopping Scams: Tips for Safer Buying Online shopping is convenient, but it also attracts scammers. Fake websites, phishing emails, and deceptive ads are becoming more common, especially during peak shopping seasons. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently published an alert reminding consumers to stay cautious when shopping online. Below are practical steps to help you identify scams and protect your money. ...

How to Spot Online Shopping Scams and Protect Yourself Online shopping has made it easier than ever to buy almost anything from a phone or laptop. But the same convenience that lets you order a gift in seconds also gives scammers a direct line to your wallet. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), Americans lost more than $10 billion to internet crime in 2022, and shopping scams remain one of the most frequently reported categories. ...

How to Audit Your Android App Permissions (and Which Apps to Remove) A recent article on Android Police recounted how one user spent a weekend inspecting their app permissions and ended up deleting five apps they had previously trusted. The story is not unusual. Many apps request access to data they do not need, and most users never question those requests. Over time, that accumulation of unnecessary permissions can expose your location, contacts, microphone, or camera to companies—or worse, to malicious actors. ...

Review Your Android App Permissions: I Found 5 Apps I Thought Were Safe (And Deleted Them) A few weeks ago, I sat down for what I thought would be a quick spring cleaning of my phone. An hour later, I had deleted five apps I’d been using for months—some for years. They weren’t sketchy downloads from unknown sources. They were popular tools with millions of installs. What went wrong? They were asking for permissions that made no sense for what they did. ...

Don’t Get Scammed This Prime Day: 9 Smart Tips for Safe Shopping Every year, Amazon’s Prime Day draws millions of shoppers chasing deep discounts. But the same event also draws scammers who know you’re expecting deals and may let your guard down. Phishing emails, fake websites, and too-good-to-be-true offers surge during these sales. The good news: a few straightforward precautions can keep your money and personal information safe. ...

How This New Privacy Tool Catches AI Agents Acting as Double Agents If you use a voice assistant, a smart home hub, or a customer service chatbot, you are already relying on what’s known as an AI agent. These programs can follow instructions, retrieve information, and even act on your behalf. But what if they quietly started acting against you? That scenario – an AI agent that betrays its user – is the focus of a new detection tool from researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). ...

AI Chatbots Are Steering Shoppers to Scam Sites? Here’s How to Stay Safe If you’ve asked an AI chatbot for product recommendations lately, you might have been directed to a site that looks legitimate but isn’t. Consumer groups are now warning that AI-powered search tools are unexpectedly steering users toward fraudulent shopping websites. The problem isn’t hypothetical—several recent cases have shown that scammers are actively exploiting how these chatbots find and present information. ...

AI Chatbots and Shopping Searches: How to Spot the Scam Websites Creeping Into Results If you’ve asked ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot to find a good deal on a specific product, you are not alone. More shoppers now use AI chatbots as a starting point for product research and price comparisons. But consumer groups are warning that these tools increasingly return links to fraudulent websites designed to steal your money or personal data. ...