VIDEO: AG Moody Releases 2019 Holiday Consumer Protection Guide

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Attorney General Ashley Moody today released a guide for safer holiday shopping as we enter the busiest shopping season of the year. This year’s guide contains information and tips on secure online shopping, charity-related scams, item recalls and more. For the first time, the 2019 Holiday Consumer Protection Guide is also available in Spanish.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “With one less week between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, many Floridians will need to tackle their holiday shopping lists sooner. The fast pace of the shopping season brings with it more opportunity for scammers to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers. I encourage everyone to take steps now to safeguard their personal information and finances and avoid falling prey to common holiday scams and identity theft.”

The 2019 Holiday Consumer Protection Guide features safety tips for online shopping, avoiding identity theft and ensuring any donations are to legitimate charities, as well as information on 2019 product recalls. The following tips are included in the shopping guide:

• Use a credit card instead of a debit card for online transactions, if possible. Both methods allow for charge disputes; however, with a debit card the purchase is immediately deducted from the bank account and may take days or weeks to reverse the charge;
• Ensure the web browser being used has a secure connection before submitting payment information while ordering online. A padlock should appear in the address bar if the session is secure;
• Review any charitable solicitation carefully by searching online to see reviews of the charity or checking with the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance to see if there are any complaints against it; and
• Watch out for similar sounding charities. It is not unusual for sham charities to choose names that sound like other legitimate charities.

For more tips, access the full 2019 Holiday Consumer Protection Guide here.

To view the guide in Spanish, click here.

For a complete list of all product recalls, please visit CPSC.gov.

Any consumer who has questions about making secure holiday shopping purchases or encounters a scam can call the Attorney General’s Fraud Hotline at 1(866) 9NO-SCAM or visit MyFloridaLegal.com.