Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas these days promise fantastic offers at very low cost. But it is also a time of year that cybercriminals scams abound. Below is the six top tips to ensure that your experience of Christmas shopping fun and safe time.
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| 6 steps to make your Christmas shopping a success |
1. Detects phishing emails
Criminals often use phishing emails to steal money and data, which is a particularly common practice for celebrations and special days.
For example, a criminal can send a phishing e-mail with a link to a supposed "deal" and actually redirect the potential to a counterfeit or malicious Web site buyer. Once there, you can try to steal data entered credit card or infecting users with malware.
You can even upload a malicious file with your email phishing, and put him through a catalog or an invoice.
Pay close attention to any spelling and grammatical errors in the email body, and always look the email address of the sender. If you do not recognize or not you wrote down to receive emails from that address, do not answer. Also, follow this guide to identify deception.
You should also be careful with the files you download to your computer, but if you update your security solution will help to detect those who are malicious.
2. Beware of vishing
Voice phishing (or vishing) is an ancient tactic of deception where criminals try to convince people to provide personal or financial data, by masquerading as a trusted source that is trying to help.
They can be passed through a bank, a major technology company, a reputable retailer or, as often happens more often, an engineer from Microsoft Support requesting access to the user's computer.
Although most people do not fall into the trap, these attacks did not disappear completely, as criminals continue to use this method to deceive the elderly and other vulnerable individuals.
The lesson to be learned is that you should never give personal information over the phone when someone calls you. Instead, you have to hang up, call the course provider (taking your phone number from an online search, no dialing just call), and once done, discuss the matter with a customer service representative.
3. Watch out for suspicious offers on social networks
Every day, millions of people write on Twitter, posted on Facebook and share photos on Pinterest, but this does not mean they are trustworthy. In fact, some accounts are not even real: there are thousands of computer bots tweeting per day.
On your next holiday buying, beware of links that you click and see where do the operations. Pay special attention to Twitter offers that seem too good to be true and using shortened links (as they may be trying to get you to a malicious web site). Before clicking, ask yourself these five questions.
If you've never heard of a particular vendor, look for it online and study their terms and conditions of sale in detail because, as mentioned above, be careful of the source to which you are buying it.
There are countless cases of Facebook vendors that deliver counterfeit goods, poor quality and even directly not deliver the goods after receiving payment.
4. Use HTTPS
In most cases (if not all) you should try to purchase items from local retailers using HTTPS encryption on its website.
This means that details of credit cards or debit cards that you send to the server vendor will remain encrypted from leaving your computer until you arrive at the server and, therefore, it is very unlikely that the criminals can intercept by an attack Type Man-In-The-Middle (where attackers capture data as it is transferred to the supplier).
This is not to say that the HTTP Web sites are unsafe; only the HTTPS encryption adds a whole new level of protection.
You can also find sites with additional security measures, such as Verified by Visa and any other type of two-factor authentication (2FA), as recommended recently the whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former contractor of the Agency of American National Security (NSA).
5. Do not use the ads that appear on search engines
Avoid clicking on the offers that are published in ads search engines: there is a very good reason not to.
It is very common that criminals infiltrate the ad servers and then redirect users who click on them to malicious sites where they try to steal their credentials or infect them by attacking web pages.
These attacks by malicious advertising or malvertising are becoming more frequent, as evidenced by the attack on Yahoo earlier this year.
If the offer is attractive and seems authentic, sees it safe: drill down and access to online deal through official websites selling. It might take you a little longer to find what you want, but the wait will be worth it.
6. Beware of fake coupons
Although coupons are not being used as much as before, scammers stopped not consider a way to make money at the expense of buyers looking for special offers on occasions like Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Christmas.
In this case, sometimes they are using fake coupons to attract potential buyers to a website where they are asked to enter information about your credit card. It may be that you have been offered a coupon user or you have found one in social networks, with a discount for sales.
As with vouchers scams, the problem is usually able to differentiate the genuine fake coupons. One of the most obvious features is the ability to duplicate and brands with apparent precision when you add a sense of urgency (for example, "you have only until the end of the day to validate this incredible offer Black Friday") manage to fool even the most cautious individuals.
If you have any doubt about the authenticity of the coupon, see the official site of the corresponding store, turn away from this advice not to buy insurance, and above all, try to be sensible. It is true that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are characterized by great deals, but when they are too far-fetched, a cautious attitude will ensure a successful purchase.
