With the approaching holiday season of this year, we find that the continuing outbreak of the Corona pandemic has completely changed the known shopping experience, according to the latest report from IBM found that the spread of the Corona pandemic has accelerated the transformation of physical stores to the adoption of digital shopping by about five years, and with stores and buyers waiting for solutions The holiday season is impatient, we find that cyber criminals are also waiting for this period to defraud the online shoppers, which requires you to be very careful while shopping on your mobile phone or PC.
Here are 4 tips to avoid scams while shopping online this holiday season:
- Make sure you are using the real website:
- Avoid clicking on links in emails:
- Avoid using weak passwords:
- Avoid questionable trades:
One of the prominent weaknesses of online shopping is the large number of fake websites that attract shoppers. Fake websites that look like a similar version of popular shopping sites offer big discount offers on products to attract shoppers.
So before you enter your credit card data to buy a product on any website, make sure that the website’s URL contains a lock code and starts with the HTTPS protocol, and for more caution, you can manually type the URL of the shopping site in the web browser.
Among the common phishing techniques is sending emails urging shoppers to click on the attached links to go to the product page or website, as cybercriminals create fake websites that impersonate legitimate shopping sites to grab credit card details that users enter unintentionally. .
So, to avoid falling victim to a phishing scam, take the time to ensure the accuracy of incoming shopping messages by looking for spelling errors and similar URLs. Additionally, be careful about downloading files attached to messages that come from unknown senders, especially if they request To take specific action.
According to the 2020 data breach investigation report, it was found that more than 35% of all breaches were the result of using weak passwords in different accounts, so to avoid falling victim to password hacking while using online shopping accounts, you should use complex and unique passwords in your accounts especially Online shopping accounts, or you can use a password manager app.
While shopping online if you find a deal on a site that looks too good to be true, it is likely that this site is fake, in addition to that if you receive emails containing deals with very large discounts with links to more details do not click on them directly Instead, visit the shopping site directly via the browser and search for this deal.