Americans over 60 reported $7.7 billion stolen through online fraud in the FBI's latest annual reporting, and that is just what was reported. The headline number suggests dramatic scams, and those exist. But most of the money experienced shoppers lose does not look like fraud at all.
What it actually looks like
It looks like a discount that was never real. A five-star product that does not match its reviews. A subscription that was harder to cancel than to start. A "was" price invented three weeks ago. Small deceptions, industrial scale, none of them dramatic enough to report and all of them adding up.
"Be more careful" is not advice
If you have been buying things for fifty years, your judgment is not the problem. The problem is that the evidence you would need to exercise that judgment, what the product really sold for, when the reviews really appeared, who the seller really is, is hidden at the exact moment you decide. Care without evidence is just anxiety.
What genuine protection looks like
Evidence, delivered at the moment of decision. Check a product's real price history before trusting its discount. Sort reviews by recent and look at the dates. Know who ships and sells what you buy. Report actual fraud to the FBI at ic3.gov, because those reports are where the $7.7 billion number comes from and unreported losses are invisible.
We are True Finds. We think experienced shoppers deserve better than warnings, so we are building the evidence layer: Sinclair, our free AI price protector, puts real price history and a plain verdict on the Amazon page before you buy. The truth, in time to act on it.