I was reading somewhere that online shopping is going to be huge this year and Black Friday is going to die out (you can read about that here: My Favorite Places To Shop On Black Friday.) because everyone is pretty much trying to compete with Amazon!
Then I started reading about all the “phishing” schemes and it was really scary to see how vulnerable we really are, especially with all this technology. Some of these hackers are composing emails to make them look like Amazons’ so when you click that link, you just gave them all your information. I thought this would make for a good post because I was SHOCKED when I saw some the extreme stuff people are willing to go to.
1. Don’t click the link if it looks to good to be true, and if you still don’t trust it, go onto the specific retailers site directly and search for the item that way.
2. Try to shop in store if you can, if the item you want is only on the retailers site, go to whichever store you want to purchase the item from and get a store gift card. Target has so much more merchandise on their site, as do most stores, so head out to your local Target and purchase a Target gift card, that way your security can’t be breached. I don’t recommend buying the prepaid Visa’s because of the activation fees but some banks do offer their customers gift cards without having to pay an activation fee.
3. Always look for SSL (Secure Socket Layer) SSL encrypts data during transmission and you will see I have provided my own link below to show what I am talking about! https://www.madewithgraces.com/.
See how it starts with https? The “s” is good, it means it’s secure, always look for sites with https and stay away from sites with http.
4. Fake Shopping Apps, this is similar to the email scheme, people were posting phony apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store but they made it look legitimate, if you want to download the App, go to the retailers site first and they usually have an icon somewhere on the main page to download their app. Apps will definitely be handy for shopping this holiday season, the past few years a lot of retailers were offering App only specials, so just use caution when downloading an app.
5. Always, Always use a secure wi-if. A lot of stores offer free wi-fi to their customers, do not use those free networks to shop with, they are not secure networks. The one you have at home will be just fine, you need passwords to get on so they are not open for the public to use.
Just use caution especially when shopping online, if the deals look too good to be true, it probably is a scam.
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As usual, if you guys have any questions or comments please feel free to email me or comment in the box below and I will get back to you as soon as possible! Happy Shopping!
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