As we write this, tomorrow is the biggest shopping day on the planet, both offline and online. Black Friday.
This means giant online retailers like Amazon will be launching into their final day of a busy deals week. And if you’re doing your deal hunting online to avoid those crowds of (sometimes) overly-eager shoppers, well, we don’t blame you. But it also means that you’ll have to be aware of a number of online scams lurking out there.
Here are 10 really simple things you should or shouldn’t do to ensure you avoid all those Black Friday scams!
When it comes to making that payment, the various options can be listed from most secure to least secure. And wiring money through sites like Western Union or MoneyGram is perhaps one of the least secure methods! No reputable retailers will request payment like this. On the other end of the spectrum is paying through credit, which we recommend sticking to if possible. Credit payments can be traced to the source, and usually offer some type of buyer protection if things go wrong.
It’s little surprise that legitimate retailers aren’t going to be advertising through spam email, or by social media accounts auto-spamming you. If you see a suspicious link posted on your Facebook news feed, messaged to you via Chat or SMS, or a suspicious email lands in your inbox, then refrain from clicking. It’s probably a scam.
This also applies if a link tells you there is “something wrong with your account” and leads to a webpage asking you to login. This is probably a phishing scam and the login page is spoofed, and will send your username and password to a criminal if you enter them.
If possible, go directly to the retailers webpage, or use links you trust, not links on suspicious emails. For example, you can go directly to Amazons Black Friday section through this link here.
If you’re seeing a deal that looks a little too good to be true, then step back and don’t make any rash decisions. Where are you seeing this offer? Does it look legitimate? Are there other red flags that may suggest this deal may be a tad too good? The better a deal seems to be, the more you need to question its validity. After all retailers want you to purchase from them, but they still need to make a profit! So sorry, this means you can’t get a free iPhone or an iPad for a dollar! (There are NEVER any loopholes.)
When entering those credit details, make sure the webpage you are on is SECURE. This means the HTTP before the web address will have an S at the end. In some browsers (like Microsoft Edge) the HTTP isn’t displayed, but a padlock will be displayed instead representing a secure connection. A secure connection is a MUST for payment pages, since it means your payment details cannot be stolen when you hit the Pay button!
During the deals and festive seasons, keep an eye on those bank statements if you’ve been making lots of online purchases. This way you can keep on track of any unauthorised payments and alert your bank immediately who may be able to reverse the charge.
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Online shopping with a malware infected device is asking for trouble. Malware can log all your keystrokes and send them straight to a scammer who now has your credit card information! Make sure you run a full system scan before your online shopping spree to make sure nothing nasty is lurking!
If you’re ever asked for an account password, your card PIN, your social security/national insurance number, your passport number or anything that isn’t needed to process a payment, then turn away.
This one is important, since these scams are RIFE. No matter what email you receive, do not open up email attachments from emails you were not expecting. It doesn’t matter if the email tells you there is “something wrong with your account” or to “view your invoice” or is there “was a problem with the delivery of your parcel”.
These are all popular ways scammers trick recipients into opening up malicious email attachments. Check this link for some examples
And try and avoid shopping on public wireless networks too. You’re essentially sharing a network with strangers, and with the right tools, they can try and eavesdrop on you. The best place for online shopping is behind your own, secured network at home. The same applies to shared, public computers.
It’s a mindset that many have difficulty adopting, but sadly with so many bogus websites looking to rip you off, this really is a must.
We don’t like to just tell our readers to just stick to the big reputable websites out there, because that can favour big business when you could be buying from a small, lesser-known (but still great) website.
However, if you don’t know the website, then you need to prove them innocent to yourself, or else assume they are guilty. Luckily, with loads of research tools out there like Google, researching sites is easy. Just type in the web address into Google and see if other sites or blogs are recommending them. Bogus sites tend not to stay up for very long before they are abandoned, so little or no feedback is not a good thing! If you can’t find anything to show the site is reputable, don’t buy from it.
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Ultimately, the catch-all advice here is to just be wary and use your common sense. Don’t be pressured into making rash decisions, and remember that there are lots of scams out there looking to lure you in. If anything seems off, sit back and evaluate, and ask someone for advice if you’re not sure. Simply remembering all that puts you ahead of the game.