How to spot online scams during the holidays

With the arrival of Black Friday and Cyber Monday around the corner, the holiday shopping season is officially in full swing.

Shoppers are out looking for the best deals on gifts for their loved ones.

However, the RCMP and the Better Business Bureau are warning people that the deals they’re seeing online might be too good to be true.

Stefanie Lasuik, communications manager with the Better Business Bureau’s Central Canada bureau, said a recent report from their organization showed a significant increase in online holiday scams.

“Online scams during the holidays go up by as much as 183 per cent, which is very alarming,” she said.

Lasiuk said the season and surrounding circumstances make it a fertile ground for scammers.

“People are looking for hard to find items for their loved ones.” she said, adding scammers are taking advantage of customer’s holiday spirit, “They're taking advantage of the crunch time as well.”

Packages for shipping pile up at Zumiez at St. Vital Centre on Nov. 27, 2024. (Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg)

Sgt. Paul Manaigre with Manitoba RCMP said scammers are using sophisticated methods to lure people, such as phishing sites, claiming to have items that they don’t and impersonating popular websites.

“If you’re going to get someone, this is the time to do it,” he said.

Certain gifts becoming popular online in recent years, such as Stanley tumblers, are another popular way people are scammed over the holidays. Lasiuk said scammers will upload photos and sell the items for purported lower prices, then never deliver them.

“Scammers are getting more sophisticated, so they're able to create websites that are very authentic looking, that can fool even the best of us sometimes,” Lasuik said.

Stanley tumblers are seen for sale at the Footprint retail store in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

To prevent yourself from losing money, both Lasuik and Manaigre said you need to be vigilant.

“You're going to get a lot of ads from Facebook, Instagram, possibly as soon as you start searching out objects you want to buy,” Manaigre said. “So you might want to shop around just to see if this place really selling it, or if they could get it from a local store or Amazon.”

“We just really caution people to take extra time when they're doing their online shopping, especially if it's a company you've never heard of before,” Lasuik said.

She adds people should also double check to ensure they’re dealing with the websites they traditionally shop with, and ensure the addresses are correct.

As for buying on Facebook Marketplace, Manaigre recommends people make their transactions in a public place and see the items before they buy them.

“If you think something is too good to be true, just move along,” he said.

Lasiuk and Manaigre both said the most important thing to avoid being scammed is to not rush things while shopping.

“Never feel rushed by a purchase,” Lasuik said.

“There's a lot of opportunities to be scammed out there, so people need to do their homework,” Manaigre said.

 -With files from CTV's Alex Karpa.

An online shopper searches different sites, Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, from Miami. Unfortunately, there's no time like the holidays for fraud. Online shopping is convenient and popular, for shoppers and scammers alike. Experts suggest restricting your purchases to reputable vendors, and be wary of lookalike websites, where the name of a well-known brand is slightly off. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)