JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV)  – As the holidays approach in Mississippi, officials with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) are encouraging consumers to be aware of scams.

According to the BBB scam tracker, there were more than 29,000 reports of customers losing money to online shopping scams in 2023.

The National Retail Federation predicted that Americans will spend more than $980 billion this holiday season, and there are ways to protect your money.

“The biggest thing we always say this any time of year when you’re shopping online, you need to have a credit card, not a debit card. And the reason being is, if it is a scammer who is taking your money, if they’re not just going to take you for that price, they’re going to take you. They’re just going to keep taking money out of your bank account till it’s gone. If it’s a credit card, you know that money’s not coming out of your account. You can dispute it with the credit card company. And what you start to see was some of these scam websites, as well. They don’t take credit cards. They want cash app. They want they want that, you know, that raises a flag,” said John O’Hara with BBB Mississippi.

Some steps to avoid being scammed include keeping personal information to yourself, thinking about the payment method being requested and using secure and traceable transactions.