Tips for a safe Cyber Monday

As the Thanksgiving turkey digests, you may have checked your email inbox, only to be flooded by promotional deals and online offers for the busiest shopping days of the year this weekend.

But the big-box chains and e-commerce giants aren’t the only ones looking to profit off Cyber Monday. Online criminals come out in force this time of the year, all looking to take advantage of frantic shoppers seeking the cheapest deals.

In the whir of holiday shopping hoopla, it can be easy to click a scam link, get duped by fake reviews or leave your personal information unprotected. But there are ways you can come out of the holiday season as both your family’s best gift-giver and the most savvy online shopper. Below are tips for safe shopping this Cyber Monday, and beyond.

Ditch debit: A debit card may be convenient, but it’s safer to use a credit card for online purchases. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, credit card users who report fraudulent charges made on their card face a maximum liability of just $50 — and many credit card providers have “zero liability” policies.

Look for HTTPS: Computer security company Norton Antivirus suggests online shoppers check the browser address line before entering a credit card number or other sensitive information. The URL should begin with “HTTPS” — and not “HTTP,” which could mean you’re on an unsecured site.

Use a VPN: A virtual protected network allows users to safely navigate the web on a public Wi-Fi network. Public Wi-Fi networks can leave users vulnerable to hackers who can access the network and see your personal information. A VPN encrypts data accessed on public Wi-Fi, protecting it from prying eyes.

Read the privacy statement: You may have become accustomed to scrolling through and accepting the terms and conditions of every website you shop on, but the growing value of user data and personal information means you may want to better understand a company’s privacy policy. That can help you know what personal data a company will collect and how it will use it. Some websites give you the option to opt out of sharing your information.

Use different passwords: It might require some memorization, but using a single password on each site you shop on can easily allow hackers to access your information across a number of accounts.

Beware of fake reviews: Fake, paid or computer-generated online reviews have proliferated on Amazon and nearly every e-commerce site — a scheme that can heavily skew sales in favor of a fraudulent seller and away from legitimate retailers. In a survey of hundreds of e-commerce companies around the world, 64 percent said fake reviews were their first- or second-largest challenge, and all respondents said they struggle with fake reviews on some level, according to Pattern, an e-commerce research and consulting firm. As consumers scour deals online, reviews can influence what product a consumer buys or what vendor they go through. The Federal Trade Commission successfully brought a case earlier this year against an Amazon vendor that paid a third-party company to write five-star reviews on the vendor’s products.

The site fakespot.com uses artificial intelligence and language processing to identify fake reviews on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Sephora. The program identifies the percentage of “quality reviews” and adjusts a product's star rating accordingly.

Stay alert for phishing scams: Phishing schemes have become increasingly sophisticated as scammers have found new ways to get phishing emails into your direct inbox rather than the spam inbox.

A recent report from Check Point Software Technologies, a global software security firm, found a sharp increase last November in the number of e-commerce related phishing websites that were being accessed from links sent via email. Malicious actors register online domains similar to popular sites, such as amazon.com, but instead might be one character off — amaz0n.com, for example.

Phishing emails often feature promotional deals that might seem unbelievably good in an attempt to get a user to click on the link to a bogus website, where scammers can glean users’ information. Check Point recommends that if users receive an email promoting a deal for a popular item, such as an iPhone, it’s best for users to go to the product maker’s website directly, rather than clicking on the email link.

Comments are closed.