FBI Warn MI Shoppers of Scam They'll Lose Thousands of Dollars To

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, which means it’s the most wonderful time of the year for people to scam Michigan residents out of thousands of dollars through online shopping.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been very vocal recently about the dangers of online shopping, especially during the Christmas season, as it seems, there is always somebody out there trying to get you to make one simple mistake, leaving you thousands of dollars in debt.

Get our free mobile app

In a recent release, the FBI made it very clear this thing happens at the same time every year:

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.

There are a lot of different ways that scammers can leave you in a bad financial situation, and when it comes to the holidays and doing online shopping, The FBI cautioned shoppers against these four types of scams:

Non-delivery, when consumers pay for goods online but never receive the items; non-payment, when purchased goods are shipped but consumers never receive payment; auction fraud, when a product is misrepresented on an auction site; and gift card fraud, when a seller asks the consumer to use a pre-paid card for payment.

While we have always urged people to do their Christmas shopping at locally owned businesses to support our community, it’s pretty much a given fact that everybody will at least buy one or two things online for their family out of convenience.

It just points out the necessity of being extra careful during this time of the year when doing online shopping.