If those Black Friday deals are too good to be true — they probably are.
The day after Thanksgiving is reserved for successful sales, not scams, but on Black Friday, cybercrime is rampant, from scam websites to fake ads made to look like your favorite brands. fans.
Fox News reports that 50% of online shoppers fall for scams each year, with 30% of cybercrime involving personal data or money occurring on Black Friday and another 11% occurring on Cyber Monday.
“With the way it seems like everyone is shopping online now, relying on digital platforms has given these groups a wider attack surface than ever before,” Cody Barrow, CEO of cyber defense company EclecticIQ, told CBS News. “Unfortunately, it’s likely we’ll see its impact extend into next week.”
EclecticIQ recently released a report that uncovered thousands of fake websites using a fake “Trusted Store” symbol in an attempt to steal financial information.
Sometimes, scam sites will look remarkably similar to those of well-known brands offering can’t-miss deals on products. Other times, criminals fabricate ads that appear to be for Wayfair or IKEA, for example, and then place them on social media and other sites.
Scammed customers likely won’t be aware they’ve been scammed until they never receive their order from fake websites, which proliferate at this time of year.
“It’s very easy to create a fake e-shop that looks really realistic. The look and feel is amazing. You won’t be able to tell it very easily. So we, too, sometimes we struggle to figure out if something is real or not,” Leyla Blige, of Norton’s Scam Research Labs, told Fox News.
“You have to think twice with scams because they are really complicated and sophisticated now, especially with AI. Things are getting a lot more powerful.”
As businesses prepare to break previous Black Friday records this year, experts are offering tips to keep your finances and personal data safe from cybercriminals.
In addition to securing accounts as you normally would, Blige advises never trusting deals that are “too good to be true.”
“If something sells for, say, $100, you’re not going to get it for $10,” she explained. “So you’ll never have it [a] 90% off discount, but usually, you get these kind of crazy discounts on such websites.”
Inconsistencies on the same website are also a red flag. Sometimes, fraudulent sites will advertise on their homepage that they accept all types of payments, but when customers check out, the site will only accept payments with PayPal or a gift card “because it’s hard for us to track,” Blige said. .
“If you see these kinds of discrepancies between the first page and the last one, you should be very careful,” she added.
Keep an eye out for unusual URLs when redirected to websites, double-check that the website you’re visiting is legitimate – and be sure to read reviews.
“You might want to be really careful and check with third-party organizations that actually provide reviews about our organizations,” Bilge advised. “We actually have an AI-powered chatbot, which we call Norton Genie, that a user can easily control.”
On sites like Reddit, there are forums to double-check with other shoppers about potential scams, and a simple Internet search will likely expose fake sites as well, Blige said. Additionally, URLs that begin with “https” are secure, while those that begin with “http” do not have a secure connection.
Smishing — a version of texting scams in which criminals send text messages impersonating businesses to trick recipients into returning sensitive information — is also a risk during the holidays.
“They’ll tell you there’s a problem with your payment, or you need to make an extra payment so they can steal your money,” Bilge explained. “Or they might try to compromise some personal information in order to use it for another type of attack that might happen later.”
She recommended double-checking the sender’s email address or phone number, noting that it would “be a few random characters” or the email address, “which is really suspicious.”
As a rule, do not click on links from unknown senders.
“You’ll never get that email from Amazon or UPS with an email like that,” she warned.
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