(Photo by Ryutaro Tsukata of Pexels)
With online shopping booming as a result of COVID-19, there have been an increasing number of reports of people falling victim to online shopping scams. Now that the holiday season is upon us and many people will be buying gifts online to avoid crowds at stores, those reports will only continue to escalate.
The Federal Trade Commission recently reported there were more than 15,000 online shopping complaints in April and nearly 19,000 in May. Hackers are taking advantage of the situation and becoming more advanced in the methods they use to obtain compromised information.
When we first started seeing instances of online scams and cyberattacks 15 years ago, the scams were much more apparent, as they would have glaring grammatical errors or misspellings. However, it’s not as easy to spot now because there is a legitimacy to how they look.
Below are the dangers to look out for while online shopping to ensure your data stays safe this holiday season:
- Emails, online ads or websites offering heavily discounted or free items.
Be wary of sites offering deals that look too good to be true. Look closely at emails for odd sender email addresses and never click the links in these emails or ads. The links will download malicious software to your computer.
- Shopping on websites that don’t have security features in place.
Check that the websites you are on have “https,” not just “http,” as the “s” means there is a special level of security in place for transmitting private information on the Internet.
- Websites requesting personal information.
Don’t give out personal information like social security numbers and bank account information if asked to while checking out online, or when promoted to through an email or pop-up advertisement. Voluntarily providing this data will leave your information compromised.
- Shopping online with debit cards.
Do all online and in-store shopping with credit cards, as this limits your personal liability in the case that it is a scam or the data gets stolen.
- Beware of fake apps.
Be careful when downloading shopping apps onto your phone. You can make certain it is a real app by verifying it on the brand’s website before downloading or entering in any information.
- Amazon third-party sellers open for less than six months.
If a third-party store on Amazon has only been open for a few months, this is usually a red flag. It’s best to find someone who has been open for a longer period of time and has a built-up history of positive reviews. Make sure to look at the reviews and when they have been written as well. If the reviews were all from the same day, that signals another red flag.
This is a popular season for cyber criminals to target both people and businesses. Ensure you are taking all the necessary steps to prevent falling victim to online shopping scams while keeping cyber criminals at bay.
Mark Capell is the owner of CMIT Solutions of Central Oregon, which provides IT support to small- and mid-market businesses throughout the area. For more information on CMIT Solutions of Central Oregon, visit cmitsolutions.com/central-oregon.
