Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI says scammers are using social media and couponing sites to lure and cheat holiday shoppers.

I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau, and this is FBI, This Week.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, says to beware of sales on hot items that come with an expiration date. Supervisory Special Agent Herbert Stapleton…

Herbert Stapleton: Fraudsters capitalize on that sense of urgency to try to keep people from really thinking through whether or not this looks like a legitimate deal.

Halpern: IC3 suggests being on the lookout for links…

Stapleton: One really key thing is to make sure we’re being aware of links to websites that you receive from an e-mail or over social media and just making sure that those things really are tied to legitimate operations.

Halpern: Doing research will help prevent you from becoming a cyber scam victim.

Stapleton: It takes a little attention to detail sometimes that we don’t always have when we’re doing holiday shopping, but it’s important in order to protect yourself.

Halpern: For more tips and to report Internet crime, visit ic3.gov.