Welcome to this
week’s edition of Your Moment of Trust! Shortages in the supply of
baby formula are leading new moms to find other ways of finding the
much-needed item--and risking themselves to potential online scams.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it is taking
proactive measures to increase supply to help ease the shortage.
According to the 2021 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report, online shopping
scams are the riskiest. With the current supply issues on many
items, including formula, scammers are watching.
How it
works: An ad, post, or social media group posts they have baby
formula available. The buyer contacts the seller via chat or direct
message, showing photos of the cans available. The buyer makes a
payment through a peer-to-peer platform such as PayPal (a BBB
Accredited Business) or Venmo (a BBB Accredited Business), but the
formula never arrives.
Signs of
a potential online purchase scam include:
●
Positive reviews on the website that have been copied from honest
sites or created by scammers. Be aware, some review websites claim
to be independent but are funded by scammers. Check BBB.org.
● No
indication of a brick-and-mortar address or the address shows on a
Google map as a parking lot, residence, or unrelated business than
what is listed on the website.
●
Misspellings, grammatical errors, or other descriptive language
that is inconsistent with the product.
● The
seller advertises on a social media site and is communicative until
the payment is made. Once the payment clears, they are unreachable.
Check out the website before making a purchase:
● Visit
BBB.org to check a business’s rating and BBB accreditation status.
Impostors have been known to copy the BBB seal. If it is real,
clicking on the seal will lead to the company’s BBB profile on
BBB.org - check the domain of the URL.
●
Conduct an internet search with the company name and the word
“scam.” This may locate other complaints about the site.
● Make a
note of the website where the order is placed. Take a screenshot of
the item ordered, in case the website disappears, or a different
item is received in the mail than what was advertised.
● Credit
cards often provide more protection against fraud than other
payment methods.
● Think
before you click. Be especially cautious about email solicitations
and online ads on social media sites. Report suspected online
shopping fraud to:
● Better
Business Bureau - file a complaint at BBB.org or report a scam at
BBB.org/scamtracker.
●
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - file a complaint at
reportfraud.ftc.gov or call 877-FTC-Help.
●
National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center - report
intellectual property and counterfeiting violations to
iprcenter.gov/referral/view.
●
Internet Crime Complaint enter (IC3) - file a complaint at
ic3.gov/complaint. ● Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre - file a report at
antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca or call 1-888-495-8501.
●
Facebook – report ads that violate Facebooks policies by clicking
the *** next to an ad to go to facebook.com/business/help.
●
Instagram - report copyright infringement or other policy
violations at help.instagram.com.
● Amazon
– report suspicious activities and webpages at Amazon.com.
● Google
– report scams at Google.com.
● PayPal
- call (888) 221-1161 to speak with a live person instead of using
an automated system if you receive an item that is not as
advertised.
● Credit
card company - Call the phone number on the back of the credit card
to report the fraud and request a refund.