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7 Ways to Avoid Online Shopping Scams in the Age of AI

Criminals can now quickly make sophisticated fake retail sites that you – or your AI shopping agent – may think are real

Christina Ianzito,

Updated November 10, 2026

AARP

En español

Updated November 10, 2026

a red background with a phone and image of a blue bag and sign saying too good to be true

AARP (Getty 2)

Key takeaways

Criminals are using AI to build convincing fake stores, so the old red flags, such as typos and awkward photos, are no longer reliable.
AI shopping agents can be wrong, so vet the retailer yourself before buying.
Go directly to a retailer’s website or app instead of clicking links, and pay by credit card.

Shopping scams are not new; they have just become far more convincing. Criminals now use AI tools to build polished websites with lovely photos and real-seeming product reviews.

“It’s about how quickly criminals are using AI to make familiar scams look credible and personalized,” notes Ann Barron-DiCamillo, U.S. Bank’s chief information security officer. Gone are the days of telltale spelling errors and wonky images, she adds: “The things that used to help us identify fraudulent activity are no longer so obvious with the capabilities that threat actors have today.”

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Gen (parent company of Norton and LifeLock) blocked 526,000 scam store domains between October and December 2025, about twice as many as the year before, according to Norton’s new report on holiday scams. Sixteen percent of 13,000 consumers surveyed said they were scammed while holiday shopping online last season.

Shoppers often land on bogus sites through social media ads or influencer recommendations. Because many people store payment information on their phone, 'it’s easy to make a quick purchase without doing the due diligence,' says Melanie McGovern, spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Can AI shopping agents be trusted?

Consumers are increasingly using AI tools like ChatGPT, Muse and Amazon’s Alexa to help them shop.

Barron-DiCamillo says she and her team use Muse and other shopping agents to try to test their safety and role in the fraud landscape. “One of the things I’ve noticed through that is they can be wrong, so you need to be really judicious in your usage and know how to validate what surfaces.”

The riskiness varies by shopping agent, notes Marike Kuyper, manager of content marketing and education at TrendLife, which makes anti-scam solutions for consumers. Kuyper has also tested a range of agents and found “some have better fraud detection capabilities than others.”

But Kuyper is concerned that some shoppers are leaving it to agents to vet products, rather than “looking at the website and scrutinizing it…asking, is this legitimate?”

Some agents buy the product for you; others will link to the retailer’s site so you can purchase the item yourself. Kuyper calls that “preferable,” even if “it might feel more inconvenient.”

How common online shopping scams work

Here are some common ways that scammers try to steal shoppers’ money or personal information.

Fake shopping websites. Some faux e-stores are invented from whole cloth, but many mimic trusted retailers, with familiar logos and a URL that’s easily mistaken for the real thing. To get you there, “They’ll buy up every domain … that somebody could possibly mistype,” says Jennifer Pitt, a cybersecurity and fraud analyst with Javelin.

Knockoff products. Some copycats do deliver merchandise — shoddy knockoffs worth less than even the “discount” price advertised as a once-in-a-lifetime deal on, say, designer watches or boots. More often, you’ll wait in vain for your purchase to arrive.

Card declined scams. You order something, enter your card information, and you’re told that your card has been declined. If you put in information from another card to pay for the purchase, you’ll find that both cards have been charged.

Malware. Scammers seed phony sites, apps, or links in pop-up ads and email coupons with malware that infects your device and harvests personal information for use in identity theft.

Red flags for shopping scams

Prices are far below those of other retailers. Scammers tempt you with designer products at a fraction of their retail value.

A great deal is available for a limited time. Many scams use a sense of urgency to make you move quickly; “don’t let someone else’s urgency become yours,” says Barron-DiCamillo.

Hard-to-get products are available. Everyone is sold out of this popular product, but they have it — often at a bargain-basement price.

They claim that you need to pay extra, citing tariffs as the reason. “Ask yourself, ‘Why am I asked to pay extra for tariffs if I’m buying something shipping from Florida?” says Iskander Sanchez-Rola, senior director of AI and innovation for Norton.

Reviews are consistently glowing. Scammers can manufacture reviews. Legitimate products usually elicit some criticism.

Coupons and extreme deals. “Big discounts by text, email, social media and online ads just cannot be trusted,” says Kathy Stokes, senior director of fraud prevention at AARP Fraud Watch Network.

How to protect yourself

You don’t need to forgo the ease of online shopping, but take precautions to make sure you get what you pay for.

1. Go directly to trusted sites rather than through a search engine,. says Barron-DiCamillo, “confirming the web address character by character,” Or shop through the retailer’s app.

2. Research the retailer. Search for the name with terms such as “scam” or “complaint,” and check consumer safety sites such as the BBB’s Scam Tracker.

3. Comparison shop. Find out how major retailers price the same product. “I had my own near miss when buying a replacement water filter for my fridge,” says Stokes, “I came across a site that sure looked legit, and the price was only $39. It usually costs $55 on Amazon. So I did a little digging, and sure enough, it seemed to be a scam.”

4. Don’t click links in ads or messages. It could trigger the download of malware and compromise your data or lead to a scam shopping site.

5. Be careful using AI shopping agents. Make sure you set strict parameters for your search, and visit the suggested products’ websites yourself rather than relying on the agent to make the purchase directly.

6. Protect your personal information. Don’t provide more information than a retailer needs. That should be only your billing information and the shipping address.

7. Pay with a credit card. Credit cards have more consumer protections than debit cards and, certainly, the untraceable payment methods noted above and favored by criminals (gift cards, crypto ATMs).

How to report scams

Report the theft to local law enforcement, as well as the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The more information authorities have, the better they can identify patterns, link cases and ultimately catch the criminals.

Contact your bank to see if they can stop payment and place fraud alerts on your account if you’ve shared financial information.

Call the free AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline (877-908-3360) to speak with trained specialists who can provide support and guidance on what to do next and how to avoid scams in the future. The AARP Fraud Watch Network also offers free online group support sessions for scam victims.

This story, originally published in 2019, has been rewritten, and advice from experts has been added.

Christina Ianzito covers scams and fraud, and is the books editor for aarp.org and AARP The Magazine.

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