While convenient, online shopping can be risky. E-commerce creates all sorts of new opportunities for cyber criminals to do their dirty work, so you need to be careful. U.S. consumers reported losing $358 million to online scams last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

In this episode, we talk to John Breyault, a vice president at the National Consumers League, and Melissa Lanning Trumpower, executive director of the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, about how to spot the tricks con artists use to fool you and how you can protect yourself. Also, the smart way to pay when shopping online, and how to fight back against porch pirates.

Additional Resources:

Tips for reducing your risk of fraud this holiday shopping season.

BBB Scam Tracker is a free tool anyone can use to report suspected scams. Your reports warn others so they can avoid similar cons.

Fraud victims can report scams to the National Consumers League’s Fraud.org website. This information is shared with a network of 100 law enforcement partners across the U.S. and Canada.