The No. 1 shopping scam this holiday season (vaccination 'costs'?)

Marketwatch ^ | 11/27/21 | Quentin Fottrell

[Libloather]

**SNIP**

And the No. 1 way of contacting would-be victims? Believe it or not, it’s old-fashioned email. Those pesky phishing links were the point of contact resulting in 19,107 fraud reports over that same period.

Emails were closely followed by fake websites (17,444), texts (16,742), phone calls (14,156) and social media (10,520). Shopping scams, most of which were online, accounted for losses of more than $47.3 million, the FTC said in a recent report.

**SNIP**

Don’t be persuaded into paying using bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.38% or Western Union WU, -1.26%. Stick to secure methods of paying like PayPal PYPL, -0.49% and use a credit card rather than a debit card as the former tends to have more fraud protections.

The FBI also suggests: “Never make purchases using public Wi-Fi. Only purchase gift cards directly from a trusted merchant. Never use the same password on multiple accounts. Do not judge a company by their website.”

“Beware of sellers posting under one name but requesting funds to be sent to another individual, or any seller claiming to be inside the country but requesting funds to be sent to another country,” it adds.

Video chat with the owner before buying a pet, the FBI says. “Criminals will use legitimate website photos to promise the non-existent pet to multiple buyers. Red flags include added shipping/carrier fees, taxes, and or vaccination costs.”

[Libloather]

There are no additional costs being a pure blood.

[maddog55]

[goodnesswins]

Need to add “UNTESTED” to that shirt