Pew Research

1 in 3 Americans Hit by Online Shopping Scams: What to Look For and How to Stay Safe If you’ve bought something online that never arrived, or paid for a “deal” that turned out to be a trap, you’re far from alone. According to a Pew Research Center study published in November 2025, about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That number is a stark reminder that fraud has become a routine part of e‑commerce, not an edge case. ...

1 in 3 Americans has been hit by an online shopping scam — are you next? A recent study from the Pew Research Center puts a number on something many of us have suspected: online shopping scams are not rare. According to the data, about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That is a large enough share to make the problem feel less like a remote possibility and more like an ordinary risk of buying things on the internet. ...

1 in 3 Americans Has Been Scammed Online Shopping: How to Protect Yourself Online shopping is convenient, but it also carries risk. According to a 2025 survey from the Pew Research Center, about a third of Americans say they have experienced an online shopping scam. That’s a large enough share that most of us either know someone affected or have been targeted ourselves. ...

1 in 3 Americans Have Fallen for an Online Shopping Scam: How to Avoid Being Next If you’ve ever clicked a too-good-to-be-true deal on social media and later realized the product never arrived, you’re not alone. A new study from the Pew Research Center, released in 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 — a sobering number, especially with the holiday shopping season ramping up. ...

Nearly One in Three Americans Have Experienced an Online Shopping Scam: What to Know and How to Protect Yourself If you shop online, you’re not alone in worrying about scams. Recent data from the Pew Research Center puts a number on that concern: about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That’s roughly 32 percent of U.S. adults, based on a Pew survey conducted in 2025. ...

1 in 3 Americans Hit by an Online Shopping Scam: How to Protect Yourself This Season Intro A new report from Pew Research Center puts a number on something many of us have suspected: online shopping scams are widespread. According to the study published in November 2025, about one in three Americans say they have experienced an online shopping scam. That’s a large share of the population, and with holiday shopping season in full swing, the risk only increases. ...

1 in 3 Americans Hit by Online Shopping Scams: How to Protect Yourself This Holiday Season The holiday shopping season is in full swing. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost here, and retailers are pushing deals across every channel. But scammers are working just as hard. A new survey from the Pew Research Center, released in November 2025, found that approximately one in three U.S. adults say they have experienced an online shopping scam. That’s a striking figure, and it ought to give anyone pause before clicking “buy.” ...

How to Avoid Online Shopping Scams: What the Latest Pew Data Tells Us If you shop online, you’ve probably seen the warnings: fake websites, too-good-to-be-true deals, phishing emails disguised as order confirmations. But new data from the Pew Research Center, published in November 2025, puts a number on the scale of the problem. About one in three Americans say they have experienced an online shopping scam. That figure comes from a broader survey on online scams and attacks released in July 2025, but the shopping-specific finding was highlighted just as the holiday season kicked off. ...

1 in 3 Americans Hit by Online Shopping Scams: Here’s How to Avoid Being Next If you’ve ever clicked a too-good-to-be-true deal on social media and ended up with an empty package—or nothing at all—you’re far from alone. New research from Pew Research Center, released in November 2025, found that roughly one in three U.S. adults say they have experienced an online shopping scam. With the holiday shopping season now in full swing, that number might well climb unless we get better at spotting the traps before we fall in. ...

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans has been caught in an online shopping scam. Here’s how to avoid it. The numbers are sobering. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, about one in three U.S. adults say they have experienced an online shopping scam. That figure comes from a nationally representative study published in November 2025, and it reinforces what many security researchers have been saying for years: online shopping fraud is not a rare event—it is a routine risk for anyone who buys things over the internet. ...