Online shopping is now easier than ever. Almost all retailers have their online store available with excellent discounts and amazing offers like never before. As it offers the best online shopping experience with high quality delivery service, customers prefer this convenient method of shopping. Shopping on the Internet is becoming a major part of the U.S. economy too. According to reports, last year, in the months of November and December alone, Americans spent $46.5 billion shopping online.
With unlimited options available, online shopping may be extremely convenient for Christmas shoppers, but unfortunately it is equally convenient for cybercriminals too who target innocent internet users and steal their information as well as their money.
Cybercriminals use phishing attacks by sending fake email messages appearing to come from genuine company along with a link that takes recipients to a fake website where they are asked to enter their bank account details or their email ID and password. Likewise, while surfing online, shoppers are also directed to a fake website to steal their personal details by offering exiting offers and discounts. Apart from this, cybercriminals also create their own fake shopping website with a look and feel of a legitimate shopping website.
Hence, it is extremely crucial to stay aware and protected from such attackers. Here are some tips for online shopping to help provide users a safe and secure shopping experience.
- Keep your antivirus software up to date to stay protected from malware attack, especially keylogger that record every keystroke and secretly send back information to the cybercriminals. Use eScan Total Security Suite with Cloud Security that provides you with safe and secure online shopping experience.
- Enable accurate email protection to restrict spam and phishing emails.
- Do not follow unsolicited links or download attachments through emails received from unknown sender.
- Be careful and avoid providing information related to your credit card, bank account numbers or passwords to any unknown site.
- Use strong passwords for your accounts, which are difficult to guess, consisting of a combination of numbers, letters, and symbols.
- Before buying anything online, check that the site is secure. That is, it should have SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption installed. A secured site will start with HTTPS:// (instead of just HTTP://).
- Be cautious of unknown sites. Do a sanity check before buying from an unknown retailer online.
- Beware of bargains. Do not get carried away by fake discount coupons or too good to be true offers.
- Be wary of discounts offered on social networking sites.
- Do not use a public computer to shop online. When using a public computer, your browsing history and even your login information may be accessible to strangers.
- Use secured payment methods to make purchases. Often credits cards and online payment services are said to be secured as compared to debit cards.
Remember, Christmas season is not just about shopping for yourself and finding perfect gifts. It is also a prime time for cybercriminals to target you. Follow the above tips and enjoy safe online shopping experience.
About eScan: eScan, one of the leading Anti-Virus & Content Security solutions for Desktops & Servers is developed and marketed by MicroWorld. It is powered by innovative and futuristic technologies, such as MWL Technology, DIRC Technology, NILP Technology, and sophisticated Anti-Virus Heuristic Algorithms that not only provides protection from current threats, but also provides proactive protection against evolving threats.
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One Comment
Joyeeta
This is great – even I don’t know about the hackers activity on online shopping. Thanks for the advice.