SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The last three years have brought a huge increase in people shopping online due to COVID-19. With that, the number of people falling victim to scams has also increased. One of the most recent scams includes customers receiving packages they did not order.

Shoppers across the country went to various sites and placed orders for clothes and other products. But what arrived in the mail were these rings.

“These are all called brushing scams. When you receive merchandise that you did not order, but was intentionally set to you,” said Jessie Schmidt, Vice President of the South Dakota Better Business Bureau.

She says brushing scams can happen when website links are fake or not secure.

“We always warn consumers that you should never click on a link in an unsolicited text message or email,” Schmidt said.

According to the 2022 Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker Risk Report, there were over 40 thousand reports of scams across the US. Nearly a third of those were online purchase scams. 74 percent of people targeted by online scams reported losing money.

“We always say for online shopping, you should always use a credit card over a debit card. Because you have more protections with a credit card, a debit card is, you know, just like sending cash,” Schmidt said.

South Dakota Consumer Protection says if a site does not have either of those, do not put any of your information in and exit out.

“You always want to look for, to make sure you’re on a secured site, whether it’s that HTTPS or that padlock,” said Jody Gillaspie, Director for South Dakota Consumer Protection.

South Dakota Consumer Protection says if a site does not have either of those, do not put any of your information in and exit out.

“If they’re hesitating at all, they should call our office before they make that purchase, let us do the checking into that site before you actually put that credit card information in there,” Gillaspie said.