Buyers beware of fake ads when online holiday shopping

Before you hit checkout on that online site, buyers should beware of fake ads this holiday shopping season.

“With the advent of AI, the links and the scams and the protocols look more realistic than ever,” Michael Bruemmer, Head of global data breach resolution for Experian said. 

A recent national survey by AARP found that 82% of people they asked had encountered some kind of fraudulent ad, and most of them didn’t know the warning signs. 

Red flags for a fake ad could be misspelling in the product title or description or if the site link ends with something unusual instead of the common .com .gov or .org.

“If there's anything that feels a little bit off, like they’re requesting your birth date for instance, then you might want to also consider that to be a red flag,” Melissa Lambarena, Personal finance expert at NerdWallet said. 

To not fall for scams, buyers should stay away from non-standard shopping sites like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

“I would avoid using any links in social media to go to a shopping site or to a deal whether it's shopping or travel,” Bruemmer said. 

Consumers might be lured into a fake ad if it has a low price.

“A lot of shoppers this year might be feeling that pressure, the tight budget,” Lambarena said. “We always just want to be mindful if it sounds too good to be true that's because it probably is.”

To protect your money experts say buy with a credit card so that scammers don't have access to your bank account and set up alerts for transactions to catch anything you didn't buy. 

If you do fall victim to a scam, you should file a report with the Federal Trade Commission.