Danger lurks after you ‘enter’ the page

PETALING JAYA: Faizi Mohd was looking for promising Double Eleven deals recently by browsing several popular online shopping websites.

Knowing what he wanted, the graphic designer searched specifically by keying in brand names and the product category.

Suddenly a pop-up advertisement appeared when he was in a website offering health and beauty products.

“The ads stated that the brand was having a grand promotion of up to 80% off on all products with an ‘enter’ button at the bottom.

“I did not suspect anything amiss and just followed the link,” said Faizi, 35, who is from Shah Alam.

He was then led to a website that looked similar to the one peddling the product brand, with only a slight difference in “presentation and feel”.

“The overall colour theme was rather off. I remember the brand I was looking at was a certain light brown and grey, but the website I was taken to was of a different shade,’’ he added.

Despite his suspicions, Faizi moved two products worth over RM300 into his cart and went on to check out.

Although the description stated that the promotional items came with up to 80% discount, Faizi said the final paying price did not reflect the discount.

“On the discounts page, I was asked to give my mobile number and email address,” he said, adding that he then knew the discounts were a ploy for him to reveal his personal data.

“At that point, I just closed the browser window and ran a thorough virus and vulnerability scan on my laptop,” Faizi said.

IT analyst Melinda Lian, 28, said her aunt was almost fooled by a website claiming to be an authorised Apple dealer several days before iPhone X was launched in late November.

She said her aunt, 60, wanted to buy the phone as a graduation gift.

“She must have been tracked while doing some searches online for the phone’s launching date in Malaysia.

“There was a pop-up ad on her mobile phone while she was browsing an online shopping website.

The ad claimed that a batch of limited edition iPhone X was available to early grabbers at 25% off with a countdown timer claiming how soon the promotion would end,” she said.

Lian said her aunt clicked on the ad and was led to a page asking for payment and personal details.

“Luckily she came and asked me if it was real before she did anything,’’ Lian said.