Smart online shopping tips to avoid ripoffs

If you have a long holiday gift list, sometimes it's easier to buy online rather than shop at local brick and mortar stores.

This season we'll spend close to $91 billion over 61 days, according to Adobe's 2016 Digital Insights Shopping Predictions.

The company report claims that Black Friday had $3 billion in online sales. It's terrific news for retailers, but there's a group of folks who love the heightened gift buying season too: the rip-off and scam artists behind devious shopping swindles.

AARP offers good suggestionsto keep your credit cards and money safe from con artists.

Forged apps

Bogus apps flood Apple and Android stores imitating familiar retailers like Dollar Tree and luxury brands including Christian Dior.

A few have phishing methods that steal personal information and hijack mobile devices until a ransom is paid, says The New York Times.

Before you download, check the logo and description for misspelled words or titles, omitted letters, or poor English, since many originate in China. Avoid the ones with few customer reviews, new apps, or links to apps from other retailers.

Review cons

Look out for review requests that arrive via email, text messages and social media posts and promise a generous reward like a coupon or a product for giving your opinion about future purchases. The links that lead to the survey often hide computer malware.

Be leery of generic "Dear Customer" inquiries.

When legitimate companies ask about customer experiences, they personalize using your name and the product you bought, along with the date and time of the purchase. You can expect to receive legitimate review emails within 30 minutes after the online transaction.

Also, don't fall for expensive reward items just for answering a few questions. Before clicking on any link, hover your mouse over the URL and if the address doesn't display the company's name before the dot com, assume it's a scam.

copycat websites

These copycat websites mimic well-known retailers. The counterfeit online sites may look like the real deal, but carefully observe the domain address in the URL. It may be off by a letter, or variation of a company name like Walmartco.mn, indicating the website was registered in Mongolia.

Pay attention to the product description text and URLs not ending with .com or .org. Check out the "Contact Us" page to find the business address and verify it by looking up the company on the Internet, or a phone number.

If you're buying online, never provide credit card information on any page without an https://. The "s" means it's secure.

To stay tuned to current scams, sign up to receive Fraud Scams at AARP: http://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/fraud-watch-network.

Carol Marak, aging advocate, columnist, speaker and editor at Seniorcare.com.