MISSOURI — The Better Business Bureau is warning the community to beware of a trend of Coronavirus related scams that were popular in 2020.

They say online purchase scams were the top scam of 2020 with five different versions.

The BBB says the online purchase scams varied with scammers pretending to sell masks, pets, pretending they had jobs, grants, and investment opportunities.

Online purchase scams have always been an issue, but the BBB has seen an increase with more people being at home.

They also say there’s an easy way to check if the website is fake before buying anything online.

Stephanie Garland, Regional Director of Springfield BBB, says, “If you go ahead and look in the upper left hand corner on the web browser that says https that ‘s’ means secure. If it has that little lock that means it’s secure. If it has the little lock that means it’s secure. If it does not the ‘s’ if it does not have the lock that does not mean it’s a secure website and Better Business Bureau would recommend for you not to shop there.”

She says another red flag is if someone tells you the deal expires in the next 24 hours.