As the holiday shopping rush begins with Black Friday, online scammers are ramping up their efforts to target shoppers. A Forbes report has revealed that 89% spike in fraudulent websites compared to last year, with nearly 80% of shopping-related emails flagged as scams. Even trusted Google search results are being manipulated to direct users to harmful sites.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a warning to online shoppers, highlighting steps to protect themselves from these scams during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the rest of the holiday season. The alert is particularly crucial for users of popular web browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Edge, which dominate 95% of the US market. Shoppers are urged to stay vigilant and follow safety tips to avoid falling victim to these threats.

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The investigation agency has warned that “When shopping online during the holiday season-or any time of year-always be wary of deals that seem too good to be true. Don’t become a scammer’s next victim. Every year, thousands of people become victims of holiday scams. Scammers can rob you of hard-earned money, personal information, and, at the very least, a festive mood.”

As per the precautionary measures mentioned in the statement released on the FBI’s official website, the cyber scams include:

• Non-delivery scams, where you pay for goods or services you find online, but you never receive your items
• Non-payment scams, where you ship purchased goods or services, but you never receive payment for them
• Auction fraud, where a product you purchase was misrepresented on an auction site
• Gift card fraud, where a seller asks you to pay with a pre-paid card

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center’s (IC3) 2023 report, non-payment and non-delivery scams cost people more than $309 million that year. Credit card fraud accounted for another $173 million in losses. The IC3 receives a large volume of complaints in the early months of each year, suggesting a correlation with the previous holiday season’s shopping scams.