Avoid the Top 5 Halloween Scams and Enjoy Your Celebration

Fall is in the air, and it’s time for a Halloween celebration! As you prepare your costumes and decorations, enjoy the fun of the spooky holiday, but be mindful that there also may be scams on Halloween and annoying consumer issues. 

The average American spends about $108 on Halloween candy and costumes, but industry-wide, spending tops $12.2 billion. That’s a lot of potential theft for those interested in a bit of Halloween fraud. 

Reviews on PissedConsumer tell us that Halloween inflation might be tapering off a bit, but costumes and candy still feel very expensive. Many families are working hard to save money, but sometimes what looks like a great deal can turn into a great headache if you fall for a Halloween scam.

Key Insights:

• One of the Halloween scams involves returns and refunds. Halloween returns might come with unexpected restrictions. Check return and refund policies in advance, especially for seasonal items.
• To enjoy the Halloween celebration, read online reviews carefully to avoid falling prey to fake websites, false advertising, and ticket scams.
• To avoid top Halloween scams, shop with trusted retailers through secure websites. Don’t forget to plan for delays and be proactive. 

So, how to stay safe during this Halloween celebration? Stay vigilant against ghosts, ghouls and creepy scammers. And if the worst happens and you do wind up falling for a clever scam, you can always take advantage of our strategies after being scammed to make the wrong things right again. 

1. Shipping and Delivery Scams

You find a great Halloween sale. You shop for a great costume idea and expect the shop to ship it straight to you as quickly as possible. But it doesn’t arrive on time due to a mysterious account hold. Or perhaps you ordered with plenty of time to spare, and somehow, delivery is taking far longer than anything else you’ve ordered from the site. This is the basis of one of the most popular Halloween scams - a shipping or delivery scam. 

A customer recently had this sort of issue with Spirit Halloween, described in review #5283908. They ordered “a Mario costume from the website” for their son, but the company “sent a mens size medium Zelda costume.” They tried again with “$20 shipping to ensure it would be in time for Halloween,” but Spirit Halloween shipped the wrong costume again. Then, the customer claims:

I have now reached out 3 times looking to get my money back with no response!! Beware of what you order online and realize that you will more then likely be out of your money from errors on their part!

2. Refund Scams and Return Fraud

Some companies are great at providing Halloween ideas, but when you order the item (and pay for it, of course), you wind up in possession of something far different than what you thought you were getting. When they suddenly won’t honor Halloween returns, you’ve run into real trouble.These are other Halloween scams - return and refund ones.

Now, they aren’t refund scams if a reputable company sends you something that doesn’t live up to your expectations, of course. In those situations, you can simply return the item and the company will issue a refund. In other situations, however, some companies fail to let you cancel or return the order, fully aware that you expected to have options when the company under-delivered. 

In the case of one Halloween customer, they spent hundreds of dollars on a large, animated skeleton for the Halloween celebration. Within weeks, they had problems and were ready to return the purchase. At that point, the reviewer realized that they “feel deceived by Joanns' misleading tactics.”  They continue by saying

They prominently display a sentence stating that returns with a receipt will be refunded in the original method of payment…However, buried in the fine print, it states that orders placed using PayPal will be refunded with a physical gift card.

When they returned the large skeleton, the customer now had “nearly $400 worth of store credit” but doesn’t have any additional needs at the store: 

They [JOANN Fabric] seem to exploit customers who pay through PayPal by giving them store credit instead of refunding their original payment method, all in the name of preserving their profits.

3. False Advertising and Promises

Ah, the old bait and switch. A company advertises a product that looks perfect for what you need or want. You order, send in your money, and wait for delivery, only to discover that you’ve been taken in by seriously false advertising. And your Halloween celebration is ruined. False advertising or false promises about delivery, the item, or the support after your purchase is extremely frustrating and challenging to address in a short holiday season.

A customer tried to take advantage of a $100 Halloween discount offered on a spa treatment. However, when a customer arrived, she was told it had expired because they hadn't prepaid. It happened because the person they spoke to didn't inform her about it. 

Additionally, the customer was cut off in conversation about the issue and claimed:

I was appalled, embarrassed, humiliated and felt extremely disregarded. Am I not a Client as well that deserves time?…By the time I left Ideal Image that day, I felt very insignificant/small and emotionally defeated. 

Fortunately, in this case, a resolved update to the initial review explained that the “Company fixed the issue and I have been provided with apology.” 

4. Ticket Scams

The Halloween celebration comes in all shapes and sizes, and theme parks certainly want to get in on the fun. Of course, sometimes you wind up with tickets to something a bit different than you’ve come to expect. Here, we have one more Halloween scam - ticket scams. 

One theme park, Knotts Berry Farm, recently started a new Halloween show, and at least one customer was furious about it. According to the Knotts Berry farm review, the reviewer “express my extreme disappointment in Knotts” after finding the Halloween program to be “satanic and disgusting.” They concluded by stating:

Supporting a business that represents such a hellish and satanic show is something I stand against. Its one thing to be scary, but to portray something that glorifies Satanism is disgusting.

5. Fake Website Scams

There are many places to sell online if you’re a vendor. Amazon, Etsy, and eBay may be the top choices for most vendors, authentic and inauthentic alike. All you need to do to sell on these platforms is set up a “store” on the site and start collecting orders.

Sometimes, vendors don’t even take the time to set up an account on a larger store – they just steal a company’s logo and pass it off as legitimate. In such a case, customers may face another Halloween scam. 

These fake websites are designed to look like the real thing, especially if shoppers are in a hurry to buy Halloween goods. Once the Halloween scammers have your money, however, the store – and any hope of getting what you ordered – disappears. 

This was the scenario one customer was facing after he ordered from a fake shop designed to look like Home Depot. The fake website was advertised on a Facebook ad and was quite convincing. According to the Home Depot review, the customer 

thought for sure it was a good site because of the Home Depot logo…

A Reddit forum poster almost fell for a similar scam about a fake Spirit Halloween website. He asked if an offer on the website “http://spirithalloweenwh.com/collections/hot-sale-halloweensale” was “too good to be true.” 

It was “too good to be true” and a Halloween scam since the actual Spirit Halloween website is https://www.spirithalloween.com/ without ‘wh’ before the dot. 

Source: spirithalloween.com

Tips to Avoid Halloween Scams

Halloween scams often work because buyers feel like a deal is too good to pass up or that there is pressure to buy without doing a bit of research first. To avoid top Halloween scams, follow some standard holiday online shopping tips. 

Shop with trusted vendors 

Consider buying from well-known and trusted retailers you’ve worked with before. Look for the contact information on a website. If you can’t find a way to get in touch with the company, it is likely that the company has no intention of working with customers if something goes wrong.

Inspect websites carefully

Only buy through a secure website. You’ll know that it’s secure because the URL will start with https:// instead of just http://. Even then, strongly consider using a mobile wallet like Apple Pay or PayPal to protect your credit card and banking information.

Check not only that a website is legitimate but also look for information, especially fine print, about returns and refunds. You don’t want to be taken in by a great deal only to find you have no options to return it if it doesn't work. 

Check each website and the competition to see if the price for an item is realistic. If the price is half or a third of what competitors are charging, there is reason to be suspicious. And be sure to check for shipping rates. A low price can quickly be offset by shipping rates or other “fees” that get added to the bottom line.

Shop early and plan for delays

Check first to see if there are any warnings about long waits for shipping or if there is tracking information available giving you an idea of issues with shipping. Try to avoid ordering at the last minute when shipping delays might spoil a big event. Order with plenty of time to accommodate transportation issues or weather delays.

Check out consumer reviews

Read the reviews before buying. If you’ve never heard of a store and can’t find reviews for the seller, you’re right to be cautious. A legitimate seller will likely have at least a handful of reviews. Be proactive and read reviews online. Are others complaining that they didn’t get what they ordered? You can expect the same when you place your order as well.

Want to avoid worrying about the drama of Halloween advertising and refund scams? Do your research ahead of time, move cautiously, or consider making purchases from brick-and-mortar storefronts instead of online shops. Halloween reviews can warn you about potential false advertising and challenges with refunds or shipping. Take advantage of feedback other consumers have left online, and consider leaving a Halloween review of your own to help others avoid future issues.

Join PissedConsumer Club

Join a community where consumer issues are the focus. As a member of the PissedConsumer Club, you can find valuable resources, ask questions, and receive guidelines and constant support from an expert with your own customer experiences. You’ll have access to group and individualized support for the issues that worry you the most. 

Halloween scams are, unfortunately, here to stay. There will always be opportunistic scammers trying to take advantage of others and their money. Thankfully, Halloween reviews and experiences can warn you about common issues so you can make the most of your autumn holidays. Have experiences of your own to share? Why not write a review of your own to help others?