Researchers at privacy company Incogni have conducted a study of online shopping scam reports reaching back nearly five years. Just after the holiday season, their study aimed to uncover patterns and trends in scams reportedly affecting consumers. By examining a large, up-to-date dataset, they were able to provide consumers with correlations and warning signs that could help keep them—and their wallets—protected during the seasonal retail rush.
The study involved processing and analyzing 121,000 consumer reports alleging retail (online shopping) scams. These reports were submitted to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) between January 1st, 2020, and September 30th, 2025—spanning nearly five years.
The online shopping scam reports contained descriptions of alleged fraudulent activities undertaken by online retailers, from the perspective of individual consumers who voluntarily submitted their reports. The researchers were able to characterize the contents of each report by drawing out various combinations of nine “scam attributes”: issues to which consumers attributed the feeling that they’ve been scammed or otherwise defrauded.
Incogni’s researchers managed to extract or deduce the product categories at the center of many (approximately 79,000) of the scam reports under investigation. Combined with the aforementioned scam-attribute analysis, this is what allowed them to generate key results from their dataset. Here are some of the highlights:
- Online shopping scam report volumes have risen sharply in recent years, nearly doubling in 2023 and already averaging a record 2,550 reports per month in 2025.
- Unresponsive customer support was the most frequently reported issue, appearing in 46% of all online shopping scam reports.
- The non-delivery of products was mentioned in 35% of scam reports across the entire dataset.
- The impersonation of legitimate brands or websites was reported in 17% of cases.
- Fake tracking information appeared in 10% of reports and increased by 16% during the holiday season, on average.
- The clothing and shoes, home and kitchen, and patio, lawn and garden product categories were the most likely to include mentions of fake tracking information, which appeared in over 15% of associated reports.
- Health and household and beauty and personal care products were more likely to be linked with unauthorized and/or recurring charges.
- Reports pertaining to items from the tools and home improvement and sports and outdoor product categories frequently mentioned unusually low prices.
- During the holiday season, delayed shipping was reported 11% more often and non-delivery 9% more often than during the rest of the year.
When it comes to the relationships between scam attributes and product categories, the researchers found results that may not have revealed themselves otherwise. For example, BBB online shopping scam reports pertaining to purchases of products from the clothing and shoes, home and kitchen, and patio, lawn and garden product categories frequently mentioned fake tracking details. Meanwhile, scam reports pertaining to purchases of items from the health and household and beauty and personal care product categories were more often correlated with mentions of unauthorized or recurring charges. Finally, reports detailing consumers’ (negative) experiences with the purchase of tools and home improvement supplies and sporting and outdoor goods often referred to the presence of unusually (even suspiciously) low prices.
Focusing on the holiday period (four consecutive holiday periods are covered by the dataset), Incogni’s researchers were able to track the rates at which each of the nine scam attributes are mentioned in BBB online shopping scam reports in the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year, as well as the weeks immediately following them.
Comparing these results to the baseline of year-round statistics, we see that several attributes were reported more frequently over the holiday period:
- Fake traffic information reports increased by 16%
- Delayed shipping reports increased by 11%
- Purchase non-delivery reports increased by 9%
- Unresponsive customer service reports increased by 5%
- Legitimate website impersonation reports increased by 4%.
Noting that the scam reports rarely mentioned just one scam attribute, Incogni’s researchers interrogated the dataset to examine the frequency of occurrence of each of the possible scam-attribute pairs:
It’s at this point of the analysis that Incogni could indicate some key insights that consumers could apply directly to their online shopping endeavors.
For example, it may be a strong indicator of a potential scam when two or more of the following appear together during a single transaction:
- non-delivery,
- fake tracking,
- unresponsive support,
- and delayed shipping.
Or, more pragmatically: if a consumer notices that a retailer is impersonating a legitimate website or brand while leveraging aggressive pricing, then they can be forearmed in knowing that this is correlated with ultimate non-delivery.
Head of Incogni, Darius Belejevas, had this to say regarding the situation:
It’s just a fact of our times that the holidays begin (and increasingly end) with periods of intense retail activity. Retailers know and capitalize on this, as do all manner of scammers. The general advice would be: the more concrete and detailed information shoppers have, the better they’re able to proactively manage their own risk.
Continuing:
This research gives online shoppers fine-grained insight into what it looked like when things went wrong for other shoppers. They can see the patterns that only data can reveal, knowing exactly what to look out for when shopping for particular types of items.
Indeed, Incogni’s latest findings are useful not only for consumers, but also the regulators charged with keeping the market functioning reliably, predictably and fairly.
Incogni’s full analysis (including public dataset) can be found here.
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by Guest Contributor via Digital Information World
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