Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Beware of Scams When Back-to-School Shopping
Say it isn't so. Summer is more than half over. And that means a lot of people are out there doing their back-to-school shopping. But not so fast. There are people out there who might want to take advantage of you. And joining us on our Tri-Connie Contracting Hotline is Michelle Reinen, our consumer expert from DatCap. And is this true? Are there really back-to-school scams out there? Oh, yeah. There are, and I chuckle because we probably aren't going to see any scams in the brick-and-mortar stores or in the newspaper advertisements. But fake websites that scammers have set up is a legitimate thing, and they know that this is a seasonal item that we're going to be entering into and purchasing. So scammers send fake ads claiming to be trusted businesses like Amazon and other big-box stores. And those ads offer these amazing deals and low prices, but they really lead shoppers to a nearly identical copy of who they are pretending to be's website. That's really meant to steal your money and personal data. How can you tell whether or not one of those websites is legit? Yeah, that's the hard part here, so you need to be very cautious. Different things you want to be mindful of and watch for are deep discounts, things that are just too good to be true. Those items that just run out of store shelves because they are the most popular, but yet they still have tons available to them. And you really need to pay attention to the URL address. If you are going to, let's just say walmart.com, that's where you should be going to. Now, walmart/springsale or back-to-schoolsale/this.com. You need to be paying attention to be sure that you aren't just following those URLs and those links wherever they take you. Why is it important to use a credit card when you're making these online purchases? Well, you get extra protections under the federal regulations, so you want to be able to use that credit card so you have those protections against fraud built in, and you can file that dispute to hopefully get your money back. Should the product never show up or just be completely inferior as a copycat product? Now, what about when you're checking out what should you look for? Well, here you want to be sure that you double-check your items are priced correctly at checkout. If an item rings up at a higher price than was listed on the shelf or in the ad, you need to bring that to attention of the teller that's helping you or the clerk or even take it to the customer service counter if you're in a store to see that the correction will be made, and if not, report that to consumer protection. And finally, Michelle, if you think you've been scammed, who do we call? Please call Consumer Protection's hotline at 1-800-422-7128.