Spotting The Shopping Scams From Black Friday and Cyber Monday

 Scams From the Popular Black Friday and Cyber Monday Shopping 

 

It is not just you who is only looking for the big sales of the holiday, some of the most famous is Black Friday and the Cyber Monday. Even the hackers are waiting for these sails. The people come together to the big and small retailers when they are looking for the best online deals, hackers have got their scams ready for shopping. You need to remember that McAfee will free you in living the life of connectivity that is safe from threats such as the viruses, malware, ransomware, phishing, and others. Make sure to download the best antivirus software that will protect you and your data, and your device.

The human element is that one cybercrime aspect that deserves a great share of attention. The criminals have always played with feelings and our fears and juggled with our trust. It is also the same with the ones that are online, mostly during the special days. We all know that it is quite a hard time and that we have the pressure of finding the best gift of the year. The cybercriminals know that too, and they make sure to customize an attacks as per the demand of the season and also the rush of that season. 

 

What are the ways by which you can spot an online shopping scam 

When you already know to find great deals and offers, there are also ways in which you can find the online shopping scams that will help you with strengthening your finances and keeping them safe in this shopping season: 

 

1) Email attachments showing authorized shippers 

A common scam hackers use is introducing malware via email attachments, and during the holiday sale season, they’ll often send malware under the guise of offering emails and shipping notifications. You need to know for this reason that many retailers or shipping company will never send stuffs such as offers and discount codes, or also the tracking numbers along with the attachments. This information is mentioned in the body of an email and not with the attachments. 

 

2) trickery for typosquat 

The “typosquat” in phony email address and the URL is a well known scammer move that looks very close to a legit address of real companies and shops. They often are found in the phishing emails. They will not lead you to a great deal, but rather will get you to a link to scamming sites that will take your details of credentials, payments, and the funds when you place orders through them. These retailing sites can be directly ignored and skipped. Do not give way to any of these email, text, or messages. We suggest you to visit the site manually yourself by typing in the real address and manually checking for the deal in the site. 

 

3) Deals and sites for Copycat 

A typosquatting tactic is a scammer trick that will help you in setting up sites that look like they can be run by a legitimate retailing company but in reality, they are not. These sites may provide you with a special offer, or a great deal on certain items, but it is nothing but a trap set by the cybercriminals to get your financial information. 

 

4) The good offer 

scarcity is what is the heart of holiday shopping. Special offers last for some amount of time, the famous holiday products that are difficult to find, and can just be found at the general time only during the holiday season to get things to take place, such as online shopping. Scammers actually wait for this time of the year. During the holiday seasons, they play along with that scarcity and hamper you under their messaging and orders. Type in the “too good to be true” offer, which is set up on sites that are phony like mentioned above. If you see the prices, availability, and the time of delivery looking too good to be true, then you need to be sure that it is nothing but the scams that are hand made designed to break in to your personal details and accounts. You need to be quite cautious here before you visit that site and click on the links. If you are not sure about any product or site, check the reviews from these trusted websites and see if it is authorized. 

 

What are the tips to shop online any time?

 

Search for the icon of a lock 

You should start by using a lock icon. The most protected websites start their address with the initial as “https,” and not only “http.” That “s” at the end of http stands for “secure,” which signifies that it makes use of a protected protocol to transmit sensitive details such as passwords, credit card numbers, and the like over the internet. It often appears as a little padlock icon in the address bar of your browser, so double-check for that. If you don’t see that it’s secure, it’s best to avoid making purchases on that website. 

 

Use a credit card and not a debit card 

There are quite a number of credit card companies that have got their self policies that will enhance the Fair Credit Billing Act. However, debit cards do not get offered with the same protection from this Act. You need to stop using it when you are doing an online shopping and instead make use of your credit card. 

 

Use the option of two factor authentication for your social media accounts 

Two-factor authentication is an extra layer of defense on top of your username and password. It adds in the use of a special one-time-use code to access your account, usually sent to you via email or to your phone by text or a phone call. In all, it combines something you know, like your password, with something you have, like your smartphone. Together, that makes it tougher for a crook to hack your account. If any of your accounts support two-factor authentication, the few extra seconds it takes to set up is more than worth the big boost in protection you’ll get.