I-Team Money Saver Alert: How to avoid scammers this back-to-school season

With kids getting ready to head back to the classroom — that means buying lots of supplies.

The National Retail Federation estimates the average family will spend $900 on school supplies for this upcoming school year ... and scammers are trying to get their hands on some of that.

News Center 7′s Consumer Investigative Reporter Xavier Hershovitz explains what you need to know to avoid getting ripped off.

Jennifer Germano is getting her fifth grader Matilyn and her kindergartner Alexander ready for their first day of school.

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“I feel bad sending them to school the first day with all the things I’m like, ‘please don’t topple over,’” Germano said.

The Nation Retail Federation estimates back-to-school spending to reach $41.5 billion this year, that’s up about $4.5 billion from last year.

“There’s a lot of money, and of course, scammers want their part of it,” Sheri Sword with the Better Business Bureau said.

She said scammers will be trying to use this back-to-school season to rip you off.

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“Scammers take advantage of every current event, including back-to-school shopping,” Sword said.

It’s online where Sword said you have to be the most careful.

Clickbait with fake ads online for back-to-school deals is one the thing BBB said they are seeing a lot of.

“They track your search history and then start sending you schemes based on your search history. So be really skeptical of those clickbait scams,” she said.

With technology becoming so important to education, scams with those are increasing too.

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“You want to be careful because those are some big ticket items. So you want to shop with familiar retailers, just don’t go with some fly-by-night or some pop-up that showed up on your screen,” Sword said.

Sword said if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is.

For Germano and her family, they shop in person to avoid scams.

“The kids sometimes they get a little picky and so I just want to make sure I get them stuff that they’re going to like and they’re going to actually use.” She said.

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