With Black Friday here and Cyber Monday are just
around the corner, scammers are gearing up to flood you with bogus offers
According to
Adobe, consumers in the US are predicted to spend a staggering
US$143.7 billion this
shopping holiday season. Unsurprisingly, smartphones are expected to account
for a significant part of the purchases made.
Shopping
platforms will be dropping prices and offering deals aiming to unseat the
competition. Far too often, what looks too good to be true will, in fact, be a
scam designed to separate you from your hard-earned cash. For scammers ’tis the
season to be jolly, since unaware shoppers are ripe to be ripped off. Honestly,
if that shiny, new iPhone at half its regular price seems too cheap, it
probably is. Here are some of the most common types of online shopping scams
you should watch out for.
Scam ads
These are an
evergreen classic not reserved just for the holidays. You can encounter them
all year round, but during shopping holidays they come out in force. Fraudulent
ads are usually spread through social media and unfortunately, involve hacked
accounts. Usually clicking on such an ad will redirect you to a fraud site,
which may be advertising fake goods. In the worst-case scenario, you might just
download a malware payload to your device. Refrain from clicking on anything
that seems even remotely suspicious and always check for signs of a scam, such
as ridiculous prices, grammar mistakes or weird surveys.
Complete
article on: https://www.welivesecurity.com/2019/11/28/5-scams-watch-out-shopping-season/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eset%2Fblog+%28ESET+Blog%3A+We+Live+Security%29