Holiday Shopping season is really an excited time for both shoppers and retailers, but unfortunately it's a good time for cyber criminals and scammers as well.
With Black Friday (28th November 2014) and Cyber Monday (1st December 2014) coming up, you need to be more careful while shopping. These are the two very busy shopping days where shoppers spend millions online.
Every eye will be on
retailers to ensure that consumers' online shopping experiences are
straightforward and, most importantly, secure. So, at the major part, retailers
need to pay attention to extra security measures in order to prevent themselves
from massive data breaches, like Target data breach that occurred last year
during the Black Friday sales in which over 40 million Credit & Debit cards
were stolen.
Not just Target alone,
multiple retailers including Neiman Marcus, Michaels Store were also targeted
during last Christmas holiday, involving the heist of possibly 110 million
Credit-Debit cards, and personal information.
So, in an effort to
secure yourself from scammers you need to be aware of some top scams and tips
to keep yourself safe online.
1. COPYCAT & FAKE
WEBSITES
In order to fraud an
online account holder's financial information, scammers could pose their
website as a legitimate one. Like you got an email from Amazan.com for the
hottest deals, and not Amazon, make sure before providing your financial
details.
Check properly thrice
who emails are from and if it's an unknown, best way is to avoid the email and
the so-called hottest deal. Always go for a website using an HTTPS URL, before
entering a password or any information like address or credit card number.
There are thousands of
websites that closely resemble legitimate domains like Amazon, Google, Apple,
Facebook and Microsoft. Apart from these, there are so many new sites offering
online shopping, that it's quite difficult for customers to say which one is
legitimate and which is not.
Many of these websites
host exciting contests or advertisements for dodgy services to gain your
attention and force your finger to click it, while others host malware that can
infect your system when you browse to these websites.
So, to be in safer side,
always shop from websites which you or your friends know. Just keep one thing
in mind while shopping online that Website ratings and security seals can be
faked and the website could look too good to be true, but probably it's not.
2. PHISHING WEBSITES
Phishing scams are
typically fraudulent email messages, masquerading as a well known and
trustworthy entity in an attempt to gather personal and financial information
from victims. However, phishing attacks have become more sophisticated
recently.
Keep an eye on scams
emails claiming to come from legitimate sources which will ask you to visit a
website actually hosted by cyber crooks in order to steal your personal
information like email addresses, passwords, credit card numbers, expiration
date, verification code, and more.
Always type website name
in Google Search Engine and then visit the particular website from those search
results, instead visiting through any link provided in messages or emails.
Don't go to websites you've never heard of.
3. UNEXPECTED GIFTS SCAM
A year ago during Black
Friday, one of the major scams was the cyber criminals offering $1,000 Best Buy
gift cards, which nobody won. But, a lot of people ended up in giving away
their personal information for no reason at all.
Online users are
recommended to avoid such "unexpected gifts" scams, just like your
dear ones recommend you to not accept unexpected gifts from strangers. Emails
could be a major medium to offer you unwanted gifts, so be careful when opening
attachments you receive by email - that special delivery could end up costing
you.
4. FAKE ADS AND COUPONS
Customers on holiday
season are always on search for great deals, especially on Black Friday and
Cyber Monday, but your just a small mistake can lead you to danger. Miscreants
use your desires by creating 'click-bait' ads or posting links to 'the best
deal ever', which will always lead to either a survey, a scam site or even
drive-by exploits.
Customers are advised to
treat such offers with skepticism, especially when the source is unknown and
unfamiliar to you. You are also advised to keep an updated Antivirus software
onto their systems, so if any convincing advert does trick you and gain your
click, your AV protects you against infection.
In addition to fake ads
for Best Buy, users also want to look out for fake online coupons in general.
If it sounds too good to be true, visit directly to reputable websites, and, by
some miracle, the offer is true because it's Black Friday sales, it's all
yours.
