The FBI is alerting holiday online shoppers to beware of scams where people are trying to steal money or personal information.
The two most prevalent holiday scams are non-delivery and non-payment crimes, according to a news release issued by the Pittsburgh-area FBI office. In non-delivery scams, buyers pay for goods or services they find online, but those items are never received.
Conversely, a nonpayment scam involves goods or services being shipped, but the seller is never paid. Nationally, for nonpayment/nondelivery scams, the FBI office received more than 44,220 complaints with losses of more than $276 million for the period through October of 2022.
According to the Pittsburgh-based FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, in 2021 more than 600 victims living in western Pennsylvania lost $848,571 in these types of crimes. So far in 2022, more than 400 victims lost $936,997. In West Virginia, nearly 400 victims lost $952,579 in 2021. So far this year, more than 200 victims have lost $736,374 across the state.
“Make sure you do your homework when you’re shopping this year,” FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Mike Nordwall said. “In general, the types of scams we see do not change significantly. However, the techniques the scammers use and the methods of deploying these scams do change….
