Shopping online? Here’s what to do when things go wrong

Ever had a bad online shopping experience? Maybe you ordered one thing but got another. Or that new company never shipped your order, despite charging you. So, what do you do?

If you can relate, you’re not alone. In 2022, online shopping scams were the second-most reported type of scam to the FTC . The good news is you have rights, and there are steps you can take .

If something didn't arrive or you didn't accept it, and now the company won't refund your money, dispute the charges . If products show up that you never ordered, you don’t have to pay for them. Federal law protects you .

To try to stay ahead of these problems, if you haven’t shopped with a company before, start by searching online for the company’s name, plus words like “review,” “complaint,” or “scam.” See what other people are saying.

And no matter where you shop online, remember:

• Check refund and return policies. Sellers often have different (and stricter) refund and return policies for sale items, and dishonest sellers will use tricky disclosures and fine print to deny refund requests.
• Use a credit card for online purchases, if possible. Credit cards offer the most protection against fraud compared to other types of payments including the right to dispute charges if there are problems with your purchase.
• Always save your receipts and confirmation emails. If something goes wrong, these can help you get your money back from the seller or file a dispute with your credit card company .

Learn more about online shopping . Or if you want to learn more about last year’s top scams, visit ftc.gov/data .

And if you suspect a scam, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov .

Read Our Privacy Act Statement

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

Read Our Comment Policy

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

• We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
• We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
• We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
• We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.