Consumers now spend up to $10 billion annually shopping Cyber Monday. Law enforcement and legal experts say you need to do it safely.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “With tens of millions expected to shop online this Cyber Monday, I want to urge caution. Scammers may try to take advantage of the increase in online shopping to steal money or financial information through various cybercrimes and schemes. To help protect Floridians, I am issuing consumer protection tips for secure online shopping.”
Here's some tips from Florida's Attorney General's office:
Double check the legitimacy of an online store by researching the store’s name and the sought-after product;
Ensure a secure connection to a web browser before submitting payment information while ordering online. A padlock should appear in the address bar if the session is secure, and the website should start with, "https://" (the "s" stands for "secure" and is important;
Use credit cards, when possible, for better protection from fraud. You can stop payment on a credit card to keep actual money you need for actual bills from being siphoned from checking account. Know that some debit and credit card providers offer one-time card numbers to be used for online transactions for further protection;
If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Be wary of an “ultimate bargain";
Avoid using public Wi-Fi when submitting personal or financial information;
When the shopping's over, watch your account balances and monitor suspicious activity. Keep your receipts and understand stores’ return policies. And, when purchasing gift cards, make sure to check if there is a fee and give the activation receipt to the recipient.
Here's some more things to keep in mind from Norton, the folks behind antivirus software:
Stick with big name retailers. Once you've made your holiday shopping list and checked to see who's been naughty or nice, decide where to shop. One way to avoid Cyber Monday scams: Stick with bigger-name retailers you know and trust. Think well-known department stores, discount retailers, and businesses big enough to run holiday TV commercials.
At the same time, Large retailers like Target and Walmart have started allowing third-party sellers to advertise wares on their sites. One way to avoid dealing with unknown third-party sellers is to look at the "sold by and shipped from" note in the product description and opt to buy items only from the big retailer.
Once you've decided where to shop, bookmark those retailers' sites to go there directly rather than clicking on offers in ads, emails, or text messages. That will help keep you safe from fraudsters who create realistic looking fake stores designed to look just like the sites of trusted retailers. These Cyber Monday scammers are hoping you'll make a typo when typing in the name of the retailer and will land on their lookalike site.
But what if you want to support small businesses and independent shops? In this case, verify that the business is legitimate and their site is secure. To do so, look for a little lock icon in the top left corner of your browser bar when you're on the site. Secure sites use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates and TLS (transport layer security) technology. An SSL certificate is issued by a reputable organization that independently verifies the identity of the website. When you shop on an e-commerce website with an SSL certificate and TLS technology, no one can access or change the data being shared between you and the website. That allows you to do your shopping safely and leaves holiday hackers out in the cold.
