BBB Tip of the Week

Analysts have predicted a 16 percent increase in online shopping for the 2014 holiday season, and package delivery companies and product warehouses have increased their seasonal hiring in anticipation. Social media marketing has seen an uptick. And identity thieves have increased their fraudulent activities with more phishing attempts to gain your personal and financial information.

Taking advantage of the widespread use of online shopping, scammers are sending emails with fake alerts for undelivered packages or issues with an online order. By impersonating retailers and well-known shipping companies such as UPS and FedEx, scammers are able to trick people into clicking links within the email or opening attachments that lead to malware downloads and identity theft.

Scammers are hoping to catch people off-guard during the busy holiday season when package delivery is at its highest. The Better Business Bureau suggests the following tips if you receive an email about a package delivery or an issue with an online order:

• Delete suspicious emails and contact retailers and shippers using website information that you know is legitimate.

• Poor spelling and grammatical errors are signs that the email is fraudulent.

• Don’t be fooled by calls for immediate action. This is a common trick of scammers to get people to act without thinking the situation through.

• Don’t trust that logo. Scammers have gotten adept at spoofing email addresses and using logos of well-known companies to make their emails appear legitimate.

• Don’t trust those links or attachments. If you get an email notice from a company, it is safer to contact the company using verifiable contact information than to click a link in an email that may be bogus.

To be safe, run your anti-virus software to check for malware in your computer system, especially if you’ve downloaded attachments from or clicked links in questionable emails.

Be sure to check your credit card statements and bank accounts regularly for unauthorized charges. Consider checking your online accounts more frequently during the holiday shopping season to quickly catch any fraudulent activity.

For more information about phishing, visit www.onguardonline.gov/phishing or contact the FTC by calling (877) 382-4357.

To report phishing and other scams, contact the BBB at www.bbb.org or by calling (509) 455-4200. For more tips you can trust, visit the BBB’s Consumer News and Opinion Blog at www.bbb.org/blog/.

By Erin T. Dodge, BBB editor