SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The coming days will see many people shopping as the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest. Jessie Schmidt, vice president of Better Business Bureau’s South Dakota region, says to be wary of tricks.

“Traditionally, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the busiest shopping days leading up to the holidays,” Schmidt said. “So what do you want to be aware of: phony advertising and fake websites.”

One question shoppers can ask is if they’re really on the website they think they’re visiting.

“Every year we have a handful of consumers that reach out that they bought something that they thought they were on website A, and they were on website B,” Schmidt said. “Oftentimes we see that around some luxury goods.”

Scammers, unfortunately, are out there.

“What scammers have done is they clone a website,” Schmidt said. “It looks nearly identical to the legitimate organization’s. But that’s why you want to go back and make sure those spellings are correct.”

And when it comes to payment, Schmidt has a clear suggestion.

“This is the time of year that you want to use a credit card, right,” she said. “You’ve got some, certain protections with a credit card that you don’t have with the debit card.”