Shopping online has become increasingly popular for its convenience, especially during events like Black Friday
Black Friday is one of the year’s most highly anticipated shopping events that attracts millions of consumers who are looking forward to doing their shopping at a discount and cheaper rate.
However, it is also a time for online shoppers to be mindful of the online shopping stores they visit as cybercriminals see this as an opportunity to create fake retail websites to exploit unsuspecting shoppers.
Beware of fake websites
These fake websites imitate legitimate retail websites and offer massive discounts to attract buyers in order to steal sensitive financial information
These cybercriminals create websites that look exactly like a popular website or use a design that is very attractive with offers that appear too good to be true. For example, the retail site may offer a discount as high as 90% to attract attention.
Other things to look out for include websites that as no contact information, or domain names with wrong spellings
Black Friday: How to Avoid Online Shopping Scams
To avoid these scammers, make sure you verify the website URLs for spelling errors or added words, and do not click on links you get from promotional emails. Also, avoid social media ads especially if they come from new accounts with no reviews or low-quality images.
Also, do your research on the discounts, online reviews, and ratings of the vendor and the product you want to buy before you give out or enter your payment details.
Discount on Gift Card
During Black Friday scammers always target gift cards by offering fake discounts on popular gift cards which turn out to be invalid or already used. Also, these scammers may send you fake delivery failure notifications asking that you send in your payment details and personal information to refund your money or confirm your payment
Tips for Safe Online Shopping
To avoid online scammers during the Black Friday season, ensure you make payments only through trusted payment platforms due to their strong security protocol, and do not use public Wi-Fi networks while shopping as they are vulnerable to hackers.
If you follow these safety procedures, you can be sure that you will make the most of Black Friday’s deals without falling victim to fraud.
