It’s 6 a.m. on Cyber Monday and your phone receives a text message from your bank telling you that your debit card is locked. “Call us now at 802-282-4833 to unlock” the text message reads, but you already know it’s a fake bank alert. Thieves attempting credit card fraud is a sure sign that the holiday shopping season is here. Do you have a reliable fraud protection strategy in place? If not, Gurucul has you covered with secure online shopping and cyber fraud prevention tips.
Practice Financial Safety with Fraud Protection Tips for Cyber Monday and Holiday Shopping
1) Avoid Online Shopping Scams by Shopping on Secure Sites
Cyber Monday deals can save you a lot of money or scam you out of a lot of money. One of the biggest (and FIRST) indicators of a potential Cyber Monday scam is a website with no SSL certificate. Check the URL and if it is missing an “s” after the “http”, then the site is not secure and you should shop elsewhere.
2) Check Out as a Guest
It can be a pain to constantly enter in the details of your credit card number, shipping and billing address, etc., but it will save you the headache of having to deal with credit card theft. Never store your credit card information on a website unless you are 100% sure it is secure to do so. And, even then you cannot be certain your merchant can protect your data from all the bad actors.
3) Avoid Online Shopping Over Public Wifi
Checking out the latest Cyber Monday bargains at the airport coffee shop sounds like a great way to kill time before your flight. However, it is best to refrain from using public wifi when doing your online shopping. Hackers use open networks to access devices, so avoid a sneaky wifi scam by waiting until you’re on a secure network.
4) Monitor Your Bank Accounts
This is a no-brainer, but with the chaos surrounding the holidays, hackers are depending on you to forget to monitor your transactions. Many of us depend on our banking institution’s fraud monitoring software to alert us if an unusual transaction is made. However, it’s easy for small transactions for small amounts of money to go unnoticed. Make a note to check your accounts daily for extra fraud protection and financial safety during the holidays.
5) Beware of Malvertising (Malicious Advertising)
As you source the internet for the best online shopping deals, you’re bound to be shown a plethora of advertisements. Cyber criminals use “malvertisements” as bogus pop-ups or alert warnings to prompt users to click. By clicking or loading t
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he bogus web page, the user installs the info-stealing malware and infects his or her system. Mitigate these risks by installing an ad-blocking browser plugin and set your browser to flag malicious content.
Before you do your online shopping for the holidays, be sure you have a reliable cyber fraud protection strategy in place.
You can find more fraud protection and financial safety tips for holiday shopping on our blog. Please share this blog with your friends and family to ensure stress-free and SECURE holiday shopping.
If you are a merchant or institution looking to enhance your fraud detection and prevention capabilities, please consider Gurucul Fraud Analytics.