27-11-2019
These days, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other sales promotions and discounts are tempting and attractive to all of us.
These promotions are an extensive field for increasing the possibilities of fraud and phishing, especially for online customers, on the Internet or in the various mobile applications..
What are the attackers doing?
The three main ways in which the attackers act against us during this period are:
- Creating shopping sites and phishing emails – malicious websites and/or phishing emails, pretending to be legitimate sites/suppliers that we all know, or messages from friends or charities, in order to convince us to provide credit card information or private information or click on a link that will lead to a malicious website.
- Unsecured transactions are intercepted – if the seller on the site/store where you purchased does not use encryption, an attacker who listens to traffic can receive the transaction details, including credit information, bank, ID and more. He will then use the details to impersonate you and steal money or do illegal actions on your behalf.
- Attacking vulnerable phones/tablets /computers – if you have not taken adequate protection of your phone/computer, to protect against viruses and other malware, the attacker could log in and steal private information (photos, medical information, personal information) or encrypt your computer/phone and demand ransom in return, or harm it in some other way.
How do we defend ourselves?
In order for us all to shop more safely, we have compiled 5 key tips for you:
- Do business only with well-known and reputable sellers/sites and not with unfamiliar new suppliers – before giving out credit or personal information, pay attention to who exactly you are giving the details to and whether they are well-known in the market. Reputable sellers or credit card companies are likely to better protect your personal and financial information.
- Make sure you buy on a secure site and your information is encrypted – pay attention to the URL, which starts with https and not http and there is a small drawing of a closed lock at it’s beginning.
Sometimes the correct addresses will appear in green, but not always. That’s why it is important to look carefully.
- Beware of emails that ask you for information or contain files or images or links – attackers may send phishing emails requiring you to confirm a transaction you have made or credit card details or your bank account or to click on a link to change your password or to open/download a file. Legitimate businesses do not require such details and actions by email.
- Protect your phone with a reputable manufacturer’s antivirus
- Download apps only from the official Google/Apple app stores
In general, please be more careful and suspicious during this period and prefer to use PayPal, and if not possible then a credit card, over providing bank account information.
It is also recommended that you instruct your children to safely use cell phones ,and be cautious when providing information on social networks and websites.
That way we can all enjoy the shopping period and the discounts more safely.
Pleasant shopping 😊