By Illinois Radio Network/Cole Lauterbach

SPRINGFIELD – ‘Tis the season for shopping and in 2019 that means shopping online. This year, Cyber Monday was the biggest digital shopping day ever with sales of $9.4 billion, and thieves want those packages.

Steve Bernas, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois, said that last year Chicago ranked sixth in the nation in losses to “porch pirates.”

“This year, Cyber Monday was another record setter, so therefore more people are getting items shipped to their homes or businesses,” he said. “Of course, the scammers always go to where the money is, so it’s easy money because they just always follow trucks around and they take the stuff off your porch or your driveway.”

Filing a police report will not always get you your merchandise back and not every company will refund or replace them. If the driver delivered the package, the company is not responsible for the loss.

But protecting yourself when it comes to online shopping should start way before the package is delivered, Bernas said.

“We suggest you research an organization yourself before doing business with them, and never follow a link directly because you don’t know where that … link is going,” he said. “The Better Business Bureau suggests that you actually type in the link yourself and go to organizations that you know and trust.

“If you get (an) email from a friend saying, ‘Check out this site for great deals,’ and you click on it, you may be going to bad sites,” he said, or customers may wind up with counterfeit products or not what they intended to buy.

For more information and tips on cyber shopping, see www.bbb.org.