CHARLOTTE – Online shopping is having its biggest year ever and that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

However, that means online shopping scams are having a great year as well. It’s more important than ever to be careful about what you click and where you share your payment information.

If you use Apple products, take advantage of paying with Apple Pay or with Apple Wallet, this keeps your actual bank info from being given to retailers directly and lowers your risk as only Apple has the information.

PayPal is another option to lower your risk by only having your info in one place rather than several.

It’s best to keep your payment info from being saved on retailers’ websites as they typically don’t have the same kind of security as banks or pay services like PayPal.

If you do shop from stores where you must input your info, try to use just one card, that way if you’re compromised, it’s only one card. Choose a card you don’t use all of the time if possible. A credit card with fraud protection is your best bet.

Be wary of follow-up emails from retailers asking you to log in. Or any website really, these are almost always phishing scams aimed at getting your login credentials so your banking information can be stolen.

When in doubt, always verify. An easy way to do this is to go directly to the website or online store and login there to check for any message or update.

Be safe!