5 popular and preventive online shopping scams

Currently, online shopping has become an especially popular business thanks to the convenience it offers.Not only the holiday season, the year-end holidays as at present will also have a sudden increase in online shopping because manufacturers often tend to offer attractive discounts.It is convenient but online shopping also contains a lot of risk of fraud, especially when the field is experiencing a rapid growth, while managers seem to have not kept up. image and give reasonable sanctions.More than ever, each of us is forced to become knowledgeable consumers to protect our own interests.Reports of theft of personal information and credit card fraud have increased significantly in recent times, especially during the shopping season.It's easy to understand because sometimes we are often fooled by the attractiveness of discounted items that ignore security issues.Saying that doesn't mean you should limit online shopping.As mentioned, this shopping method is very civilized and extremely convenient.However, it would be better if you were knowledgeable about popular scams through e-commerce, as well as making sure how to take the necessary steps to protect yourself from online threats. .

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Here are five of the most popular online shopping scams in recent years, along with tips on how to avoid them that you can apply on a case-by-case basis.

Discount cards, gift certificates

73% of consumers said they would try to get a gift card during this shopping season.That means a lot of people are trying to find reduced gift cards or votes for their friends and family.Unfortunately, scammers are also smart enough to realize the desire and common mentality of consumers during the shopping season.

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Most gift card offers and coupons directly from retailers are legal, but online shoppers should still be wary of scammers using fake gift card ads steal information or even money from light-hearted people.

One of the best ways to determine if a gift card is provided is genuine or false is to consider whether it requires you to provide important personal information such as a bank card code.Retailers, companies or banks that do business will naturally not require you to provide this information to receive a coupon.If you find that this coupon or discount card requires too much information, delete the email immediately.If it does not require bank information it is also highly likely that it is safe, but you should still seek suggestions or call the retailer to make sure the gift card is real.

Suspicious links in email

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Email marketing has become one of the many popular ways that retailers use to access or provide consumers with special deals and holidays.Like gift cards and coupons, most of the emails you receive from retailers this season will be real information, but can also be a really sophisticated scam.Your job will remain carefully and carefully considered.

If you receive an email notifying you of a coupon from a site you don't recognize, don't click on any link in that email.Scammers will use malicious links in fake shopping emails to get users to websites that ask for personal information.These can be attributed to an identity theft.In addition, more dangerous, these websites can also be used by hackers to distribute malicious code or install ransomware (extortion software) on your device.

The solution is that if you find that the information on that email has doubts, try searching for a bit of information on Google.If it's a real deal from coming to a legitimate company, you might find relevant information on the Internet.If not, you may also find one or two results that are deceptive.Alternatively, you can try searching for senders or calling customer service switchboards to find out if the company is legitimate.

Fake site

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Coupon code (coupon) is an item that is not unfamiliar to those who regularly shop online.Hunting and using coupon codes is a great way to save money when you buy products, but the way you get them can lead to trouble if you search for deals from wrong sources.

Many websites promise to give you many free coupons when you fill out "quick survey".This seems harmless, but the landing page of the survey template is often designed to collect personal information from you or install malware on your device.

To avoid this type of fraud, you must identify a coupon website that you care about how reliable it is.You can search for that site name on Facebook or related information on Google.The most important thing is to see if it is a verified site.If you don't see the blue traces attached to the site's name on its Facebook page, it means that the site is not authorized and may be a scam.The mark will be green or gray depending on how the page is evaluated by Facebook's verification standards, but both colors show that it is an authenticated page.You should also look at the URL structure of the website where the coupons are linked to whether something is out of the ordinary and try to avoid accessing websites that have strange, unreliable domains.

Hack shopping accounts

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There have been many scandals related to leaking customer information of e-commerce websites.In fact, shopping sites are the favorite target of hackers who want to steal and sell customer information.Rather than relying on retailer security barriers, you must also take measures to protect yourself.For example, use a different username and password for each account you trade with an online retailer.Using different email accounts for online shopping is also a smart idea to avoid losing all information.In addition, you should also minimize the linkage of your financial and banking login information with social networking accounts or shopping accounts.

Another smart way to keep your personal financial information safer is to use prepaid cards for online purchases during the shopping season, instead of using debit or credit cards. personal use.

Malicious code

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Another way that scammers have the same level of use for light-hearted consumers believes is through malicious sites and installing malware rerouting on your device.Usually, you run the risk of encountering this form of fraud through malicious links sent to you via email or text or when you accidentally enter the wrong URL while trying to access a particular site. can.When you have access to one of these sites, the site automatically installs malware or redirects you to other fake websites.

The best way to protect yourself from this type of scam is to run security software on your device.These software will help prevent and delete malicious codes and spyware from your device.The next step is to always update your browser to the latest version and stay away from Internet Explorer, which has proven to be more vulnerable.You should also monitor suspicious changes on websites you visit frequently.Fake websites will often have much lower quality than real websites and have strange copies or malfunctions that you will not be able to see on real sites of financial institutions or retailers. great.

See more:

1. How to detect scam online
2. Banks warn of fraudulent ways through electronic banking transactions
3. How to identify phishing emails
4. The 4 most popular network attacks towards older people in 2018