One week away from Thanksgiving and the holiday season looming, police are warning residents eager to check items off their shopping lists to remain vigilant for possible scams, especially those buying and selling items on e-commerce exchanges.
The giving season, according to law enforcement officials, is also the time of year that many sophisticated scammers come out of the woodwork and are looking to pounce on unsuspecting online shoppers.
KTLA’s David Lazarus, host of “Consumer Confidential,” estimates people will spend roughly $240 billion shopping online over the holidays this year, up 8% from last year.
He said any time shoppers use their credit cards or personal information, they should go in with their eyes open.
“Look at the little URL at the top where it says ‘http,’” Lazarus explained. “What you want to see is ‘https,’ meaning you’ve got a secure connection and there’s not going to be anyone looking over your shoulder as you’re making the transaction.”
Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department are also calling on residents to be safe and are especially concerned with emerging crime trends in e-commerce exchanges where people agree to meet up to buy or sell items from popular sites like Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp.
The meet-ups can very easily turn into an opportunity for thieves, officials say.
“Some of these robbery victims are told to meet in an unfamiliar neighborhood or location and they were robbed of their property and money,” LAPD Commander Ryan Whiteman said.
In one ongoing investigation, LAPD said a suspect uses fake listings for iPhones to lure victims into meeting up and then proceeds to threaten them with a knife before stealing their property.
These kinds of scenarios have happened at least seven times in the last four months in the L.A. area, police said. They added that it’s likely happened more often than that and gone unreported.
“It’s difficult a lot of the time,” online shopper Melinda Hernandez told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff. “I feel like safety is a big priority, especially as a woman. So, I’ll usually take my boyfriend or a male friend with me.”
She added that for the most part, her e-commerce meet-ups have been perfectly fine, though it’s still important to take precautions.
LAPD agrees, saying that at this time of year, they see a rise in car and home burglaries because people are buying lots of items and those are sometimes visible in vehicles or through the window of a home.