MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The Better Business Bureau is highlighting the riskiest scams of 2021 in a new report released Monday.
The Southwest WI Regional Director for the BBB, Tiffany Bernhardt Schultz, explained how riskiness is calculated. “The BBB scam risk index formula is exposure X susceptibility (the likelihood of loss) X the monetary loss. So, these three factors help us understand the impact of the scam and who’s most vulnerable.”
Online purchases remained the #1 riskiest scam, making up 37.4% of the 46,000+ scams reported to the BBB last year. The report indicates that 3 out of 4 victims reported losing money to online scams.
“The average loss on that is $101 which is less than our average $169 median loss of overall scams. So, consumers are losing less in online purchase scams, but they’re still losing money,” said Bernhardt Schultz.
This type of scam is where fraudsters offer attractive deals online to lure in consumers, but once a purchase is made the product never shows up or it’s a counterfeit.
“Take a look in the web address bar. Does the address start with an https instead of http? The ‘s’ is always going to stand for a secure site. Look at the site. Are there grammatical errors, spelling errors? If so, the red flags may want to go up,” advised Bernhardt Schultz.
Bernhardt Schultz also said to look for full contact information on the website, including an address, phone number and a privacy policy. “Call the phone number. Does a real…
