RICHMOND, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The Better Business Bureau serving Central Virginia has released its top three regional scams of 2020.

The top three are employment, pet scams and fake websites, and these all relate to COVID-19.

Since many people across the country lost their jobs this year, there have been many fake job postings. These scams would get information from those unemployed and looking for jobs.

Loneliness has hit many people during the pandemic, which has caused many people to want to get pets. However, there have been reports of people searching online for a pet and trying to purchase one when really, they just run into a scam.

There have also been many fake websites created with more people online shopping this year.

The news release from the Better Business Bureau serving Central Virginia on the top three regional scams: 

Scammers and fraudsters didn’t take a break in 2020. With COVID-19 lockdowns, remote working, and uncertainty about the future, con artists became emboldened and exploited millions of online consumers and businesses. 

BBB serving Central Virginia received thousands of complaints in 2020, and provided more than 100 press releases on individual scams, frauds and warnings to the public via regional media (several became national stories). Some patterns emerged; three in particular. Here are our Top 3 Central Virginia scams of 2020. 

#3 FAKE WEBSITES: Online purchase scams were very costly to consumers and businesses. More people lost the highest amount of money to individual online purchase scams than any other scam in 2020. Special deals on social media websites, Trial Offers, and other “too good to be true” opportunities drained money and identity information from Central Virginians.

Moral of this story is to do your research before placing any order by going directly to the company of the product to see if it is real, and never send money by anything other than a credit card as any other method has few if any ways to get your money back once you realize you were scammed. 

#2 PET SCAMS: The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased demand for pets as people wanted to add a pet to the family to ease the loneliness and tension of prolonged time at home. With this rising demand came a spike in pet scams whereby online searching ends with a would-be pet owner paying hundreds of dollars or more to purchase a pet that ultimately doesn’t exist, never showed up, or was a different animal than what was paid for by the buyer.

The moral of this story is if you cannot in-person check out the pet, or have someone you know do it for you, don’t buy it. Go to a local animal shelter instead.

#1 EMPLOYMENT: With so many forced to work from home because of COVID, and previously record full employment consequently becoming record high unemployment, so too did employment scams soar. From scam job postings, fake recruiter emails, and work-at-home schemes, many job seekers lost thousands of dollars on these cons and/or lost their personal identification filling out fake job aps.

A 2020 BBB report found that 65% of fake online job postings are related to becoming a “warehouse distribution coordinator” or a similarly-titled position involving package reshipment. 

The military were really targeted by criminals because scammers also know discharging or retiring service members, most married and with kids, really need to find a good job quickly--especially tough to do during the COVID crisis. 

The moral of this story is that if it looks and sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not true.

“An especially tough year for consumers and businesses was made even tougher by scammers who took full advantage of the pandemic, the angst around it, and the uncertainty of the future. Ripping off the innocent is what scammers do, and unfortunately they’re very good at it,” said Barry N. Moore, President & CEO of BBB serving Central Virginia. “The best weapons the consumer has against being ripped off is knowledge, common sense, and checking with BBB.org Scam Tracker before making purchases or filling out “job applications,” added Moore. 

For More Information

To learn more about scams, go to BBB.org/ScamTips. For more about avoiding scams, check out BBB.org/AvoidScams. If you’ve been targeted by this scam, help others avoid the same problem by reporting your experience at BBB.org/ScamTracker.

Stay up on the latest scams by subscribing to BBB Scam Alerts emails.