The Black Friday sales are nearly upon us and many families make it a tradition to head to the stores for the early door busters. The atmosphere of Black Friday always brings its own type of hustle and bustle to snag that one great sale item.

“Black Friday is crazy, they set a lot of records for retail on Black Friday. So, I have five easy tips for you that will help you with your Black Friday Scam Alert, as I like to call it,” said Carbon County Sheriff Jeff Wood. This is a time of year brings out the best in people but it also brings out the scam artists, porch pirates and pick pocketers. Shoppers that hit the early morning door buster sales are urged to keep a watchful eye on their purse and never leave it unattended.

If most of your Christmas shopping is done online, there is still precautions that shoppers need to keep in mind. “There is 2.5 percent of all your spam things that popped up on your internet and scams anyway and for Black Friday, it will be way more than that,” stated Wood.  “If it looks to good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true and if it’s a retailer that you’ve never heard of before stay away from it.” Always use familiar websites, rather than shopping with a search engine.

If you are having some packages delivered, you should make sure that someone is home, always request that a signature is required, make arrangements to have packages dropped off with a neighbor or dropped off at your place of employment. This will illuminate porch pirates.

“If you not expecting a package, don’t fall for emails or texts claiming that something is undeliverable. If you think there’s a package that’s not been delivered, contact the carrier,” said Wood. Shoppers can request that their packages have a tracking number so the status of delivery may be monitored.

Consumers will be using credit/debit cards to make purchases, whether online or in store, that information needs to be protected at all times. Go online regularly to monitor accounts during the holiday season. If detection of a fraudulent charge has been noticed, contact your banking institution immediately so they can begin action on your account to stop further charges.

The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.