MIDLAND, Texas — As you search the web looking to order those holiday gifts this holiday season, make sure you don't let scammers ruin your holiday by running off with your money.
"The Christmas season is very exciting but it also is prime time for con artists to carry out a variety of scams," said Devin Benavides, Regional Director of the Permian Basin Better Business Bureau.
"We receive reports daily of consumers paying for items they never received and being charged monthly for some service or subscription they didn’t sign up for and receiving products are a counterfeit or what wasn’t advertised," Benavides said.
According to the Better Business Bureau, many of those scams are either online, imposter or phishing, like misleading social media ads.
Also look out for fake shipping notifications. If you do click on a fake link, you could be walking into another scam via a look-alike website.
"A lot of times they do lead to look-alike websites created by scammers to trick people into downloading malware or making dead end purchases or sharing info," Benavides said.
So to ensure that your Christmas will be merry and bright and scam free, be observant and always trust yourself.
"If it seems too good to be true it probably is. Trust your gut, your intuition and just always be vigilant," Benavides said. "We have a lot of consumers who are reporting things like this this time of year and unfortunately like I said things moving more to e-commerce and shopping online, it’s so convenient and so vulnerable to fall prey to those scams."
If you think you've been scammed you can report them to the Better Business Bureau Scamtracker.