Black Friday fraud alert
SHOPPERS are being warned to be extra cautious when spending up at the popular Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping bonanzas because scammers will be out in force.
These days are among the busiest on the shopping calendar and many consumers will be rushing to snap up discount deals to fill their Christmas stockings.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s deputy chair Delia Rickard says shoppers should be on high alert before they click and pay.
“When shopping online at stores you haven’ t shopped at before you need to be wary because there are fake stores out there ,” she said.
“Take a deep breath, do your checks before you purchase and don’t spend more than you can afford to lose.
“Watch out for prices out there that seem too good to be true.”
Rickard said many scams occurred on online shopping marketplaces and also fake store websites.
ACCC data shows online shopping scams have increased 42 per cent this year with more than 12,000 reports and $7 m lost.
Rickard urged shoppers to be on alert when sites requested direct bank transfers or payment using crypto currency or gift cards.
“You should always choose to pay through a secure payment mechanism such as a credit card or PayPal and look for https in the web link ,” she said.
The https mean all communication between the users’ browser and website are encrypted.
Rickard also said to be wary of clicking on links sent via SMS.
“We saw over $2m lost this year to Australia Posts cams ,” she said.
“The ones which are going around at the moment say ‘you’ve missed a delivery, you need to pay a charge and click here’.”
Cybersecurity company McAfee’s spokeswoman Alex Merton-McCann warns shoppers not to click directly on email offers with enticing deals.
“Don’ t click on them when they are offering the deal of the century ,” she said.
“If the deal is really good go directly to the website, phishing is the number one scam of the year.”
Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to get sensitive information including usernames, password sand credit card details by someone who is disguised as a trust worthy entity.
She also suggests signing up to a password manager where you can safely store all your passwords.