Reported scams double in North Carolina during COVID-19


NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) — During the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping is booming, but those online purchases are also hitting consumers hard when it comes to getting scammed.

According to the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina, there have been $25,663 in losses for online purchases since March 1 for consumers in its 33-county service area to online scams.

The agency said most online purchase scams where people lost money were material items such as rugs, home decor, clothing but the majority of large losses that were $500 and above were all pet scams.

The Federal Trade Commission also said that it has received record numbers about problems related to online shopping. While online shopping complaints to the FTC have been on the rise for a number of years, reports of undelivered items in May 2020 alone represent a nearly two-fold increase over the number of reports in December 2019, the heart of the busy holiday shopping season.

Just in the last month, the number of scams reported to the BBB of Eastern North Carolina has doubled.

Read more here.

Categories: Bladen, Brunswick, Local, NC, NC-Carolinas, New Hanover, News, Pender

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