Don't fall for summer swindles and movie scams | Here are some red flags

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Consumers looking for this season's hottest merchandise and movie tickets need to be extra vigilant.

Criminals look to capitalize on whatever is capturing our attention right now, like the new Kelly green Eagles jerseys that went on sale Monday morning.

Across the nation, it's been summer fashion and the most sought-after concert and movie tickets.

Billabong is an iconic fashion brand, especially popular during the summer. According to the cybersecurity firm BrandShield, a growing number of bogus websites are popping up to impersonate it.

BrandShield said potential scams targeting Billabong fans shot up 670% from April to June.

"For Quicksilver, over 620%. For Speedo, 95%," said Yoav Keren of BrandShield. "And this is, this is happening across the board for a lot of companies."

Scammers are targeting movie lovers, too.

"As soon as the Barbenheimer phenomenon came about, we started seeing a lot of malicious websites that popped up almost out of nowhere, almost overnight," said Aura's Chief Scientist Zulfikar Ramzan.

They are phishing websites claiming to peddle everything from limited-edition merchandise to discounted movie tickets.

"And what's unique here is that historically, when we think about phishing, it's often been associated with financial institutions or credit card companies and so on and so forth. And we're now seeing this palpable shift away from that towards more mainstream topics," Ramzan said.

Identity theft is skyrocketing, costing Americans $8.8 billion in 2022, according to the FTC. That's a 49% increase from the year before.

"AI is enabling anyone from anywhere in the world to set up a fraudulent website in seconds," said Ramzan.

Watch for red flags. First and foremost they'll typically put some kind of a call to action, a sense of urgency. For instance, the con artist might say merchandise will run out in 24 hours.

Red flag number two is if paying with a credit card is not an option.

"They're trying to get you to pay through other mechanisms like Venmo, or PayPal, or Zelle," said Ramzan.

The scamer may also try to get you to pay via cryptocurrency or wire transfer.

Red flag number three is if the website asks for personal and financial information that wouldn't normally be necessary to complete a purchase.

If someone reaches out with an offer, especially on a messaging app or through social media, don't click on the link in the email or text. Instead, independently find and go to the company website.

"Make sure that you can find the same special offer in your original website," said Keren.

Also, make sure it has "https" at the beginning of the URL with a lock symbol.

To really level up your security, consider getting a VPN or virtual private network to surf the net. It's an encrypted connection and it'll cost you about $5 to $10 a month.

And consider signing up for identity theft protection. Many companies, including some credit card companies and employers, offer it for free.