The perils of online shopping at Christmas

Tomorrow is CyberMonday – the biggest day of the year for online shopping. Visa Europe reckons we’ll splash out nearly €1m every hour – up 17% on last year.

Despite the mood of austerity, we’re likely to click our way through one million Visa transactions alone in 24 hours. And in December, we’re set to clock up seven million Visa purchases worth a total of €474m.

But the ‘season of goodwill’ does not apply to online scammers. In fact, they are more active than ever at Christmas when it’s easier to extract cash from unwary, harassed shoppers.

One favourite trick is to make you an unbelievable ‘free’ offer, where you only have to pay for post and packaging. But who reads the small print of online contracts? If you do, you might find that you’ve signed up for a recurring order.

And if you don’t cancel it within a couple of weeks, you’ll have hefty monthly deductions taken from your credit card account.

These payments are very hard to cancel. The scammers keep setting up new identities as seemingly legitimate merchants. And credit card companies won’t give you your money back unless fraud is proven against the latest incarnation to take you for a ride.

Such shenanigans are not allowed any more under EU rules, but how do you know where an online company is really based?

And those outside the EU may operate in a regulatory no-man’s land where it’s open season on consumers.

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation has warned shoppers that ‘anonymous fraudsters can set up legitimate-looking websites to sell either counterfeit goods or no goods at all’.

The fraud squad warns people to take extra care when buying certain types of gifts. The scammers’ top five pressies are: smart phones, digital cameras, designer goods, laptops/notebooks/ tablets and video game systems. ‘If website prices for designer items, games and smart phones seem too good to be true, they probably are,’ a garda spokesman said.

Security software company McAfee has also just released what it calls its annual list of the ‘12 Scams of Christmas’.

This year’s list includes emails from fake shipping companies and dodgy mobile phone text deals.

They also warn of Christmas e-cards infected with malware (a term for all forms of malicious software, which can cause damage or spy on your personal data), so open only those from people you know.

Malware spread via apps is also targeting all that juicy personal financial data we keep on our smartphones. Make sure to check the app store is an official one before downloading.

You’ve probably heard of Phishing, where cybercriminals extract personal details via emails. Well, the latest scam is SMiShing, which is the same thing, via text messages. Most businesses wouldn’t ask for personal details or passwords in this way, so treat any that do with extreme suspicion. So be careful – or you might end up buying pressies for a bunch of scammers instead of your friends and family!

You can make online shopping a lot safer with these simple steps:

Deal with a well-known global company or a local supplier you know well.

If you don’t recognise the trader, search online for any complaints about them

Check out online firms at The Better Business Bureau – www.bbb.org. This rates companies and has a file of any complaints.

Open an account with Paypal to improve security.

Make sure you have up-todate anti-virus security software.

Your home Wi-Fi is safer than using an internet café or public-access Wi-Fi.

Check with your debit/ credit card providers about what extra security they provide.

Check the browser address changes from http to https to indicate you have a secure connection.