How to Avoid Online Shopping Scams During the Christmas Season?

As the Christmas season approaches us, people all over the world are heading online to look for the most affordable deals of gifts to their families and friends. This is a the ideal time for cybercriminals to profit from unwitting consumers and try to grab a share of the $730 billion that consumers are expected to spend in gifts for the holidays in accordance with the National Retail Federation.

The most well-known scams you can encounter this year are:

• Scam websites that are phishing
• Fake purchase confirmations
• Fake charities
• Scams targeted at the elderly
• False listings on ad ads
• Social media is full of fake fundraisers
• Phishing Website Scams

This popular holiday fraud is when a cybercriminal creates fake websites that appear to be an authentic known online retailer. The fake site will usually be a copy of a popular website intended to trick customers to believe they are using Amazon or eBay or any other e-commerce website, when the personal information they divulge on the website falls to an e-scammer.

To stay away from an phishing scam be aware of the URL of every site you go to. A legitimate online store has an "lock" symbol or even begin by using "https" instead of "http" on their page for purchase. This means that the website is safe. Furthermore the URL does not match the actual website. Sometimes, the URL is an unrelated string of letters and numbers and other times, it could appear to be it's the address of an website, such as "6789-ebay.com" instead of "ebay.com"

Fake Purchase Confirmations

Fake confirmations of orders are one type of scam that becomes frequent during the holiday season. A fraudster sends you a phishing email that looks like it comes from a legitimate store and confirms an order was not placed. If you want to cancel the order you'll be asked to click a link and enter your personal details to cancel the order. In reality, the information will be passed to the fraudster.

Fake Charities

It's the season of giving and scammers are aware of this as an opportunity to profit from people's good intentions. False emails and phone calls that impersonate charities are commonplace during the festive season. To stay away from falling for this fraud, don't make a commitment to donate money to a charity without conducting extensive research prior to doing. If you suspect that the charity is fraudulent avoid giving the charity any money. Instead, make a donation to a charity you can trust to be legitimate.

Scams Targeting the Elderly

The elderly are frequently the targets of scams in the festive season. Scams targeting seniors can are available in many kinds, like calls from fake collection agencies soliciting money for fake bills, or emails or calls from scammers pretending to be relatives of those who are in a crisis, and soliciting money to help them escape a difficult situation.

One of the best ways to stay clear of these frauds is to ensure that family members who are elderly are aware of these scams and to ask them to hang up and then call a different relative to verify the call, before transferring the caller any cash.

False Ad Listing

Scammers may use websites such as Craigslist to commit fraud through the sale of fake or damaged items, requesting advance payment before delivering you the item or insisting on the shipment of an item , instead of getting together to exchange it.

Buyers who use Craigslist and other online marketplaces must exercise caution when buying items. Make sure you test and inspect every item before buying it, and be cautious purchasing items such as tickets to events that may be counterfeit or even expired.

Social Media Platforms are Full of Fake Fundraisers

This kind of fraud has gained popularity recently, mostly as fake stories of sobbing soliciting donations through crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe. Certain stories become viral on social media, for instance, an untrue story of helping a homeless man who generated $400,000 for the fraudsters last year.

Do not Overlook Your Cybersecurity

The most effective method to avoid fraud during the holiday season is education and awareness. Anyone who shops online should adhere to the advice listed above to remain secure, however even the most experienced users are still susceptible to being targeted by real appearing phishing attacks as well as confirmations of purchases.

To ensure that you do not be a victim of any frauds on the holiday season, it's advised to download an antivirus program with security features for shopping to make sure they are able to shop online without worry.

Webroot Antivirus that includes Secure Shopping enhances your online safety to another level, by placing your browser within a safe container, which isn't vulnerable to hacking, tracking or accessed by cyber criminals or malware.  You can download webroot antivirus just few steps at www.webroot.com/safe or webroot.com/safe.

Webroot Antivirus:

• Secure your personal online information from other processes on your computer
• Protects you from malicious processes attacking your browser
• Stops keyloggers recording keystrokes
• Informs you that there's an external connection to your computer
• Finds fraudulent SSL certificates to stop man-in the-middle attacks
• Stops malware and hackers from making photos of you during your sessions