The season of special sales at the end of the year started a few days ago with the Good End and now continues with the Black friday and the Cyber monday, which take place on November 26 and 29, respectively, although some companies leave their offers and promotions in effect throughout the weekend.
It is well known that due to the confinement caused by the pandemic, online shopping exploded, so since last year, online sales sites have had a greater influx of buyers.
The downside to this is that it also cybercriminals have expanded their attack methods, so it is important to take the necessary measures and precautions to make safe purchases online and avoid being a victim of fraud, deception and data theft.
In this regard, the computer security company ESET warns that, during the past year, the impersonation of electronic commerce companies, such as Amazon, and some parcel companies accumulated most of the cyber threats to which users who made purchases during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Thus, ESET unveils the four most common scams these days of special sales, so that consumers are alert and avoid being a victim of them.
Free products hard to believe
Who doesn’t like to get free stuff? Cybercriminals know that the word “free”, especially when accompanied by the most popular products, is a great hook for people to fall for their traps. But think about how many companies really give away things out of nowhere and without any other purchase or condition? None! So If you see something too good to be true, it is because it is surely a scam, do not fall for it!
Emails that impersonate parcel companies
With all the purchases that can be made on these dates, it is easy to open an email whose sender is – supposedly – a parcel company and click on the attached link, especially if they inform you that there was a problem with your order. Avoid opening any link, as it may be a cybercriminal impersonating the company and the link could lead to a data theft site.
It is best that you get in direct contact with the company in question –Either by phone, through their customer service channels or through their official social networks– to clarify any eventuality with your order and to know the validity of the message you received.
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URLs similar to the real ones, but which are fake
When shopping online, it is important that you do so calmly and paying attention to the sites you visit, to ensure that they are authentic and safe. The rush can lead you to fall for the so-called scam typosquatting, where Malicious sites register with URLs very similar to those of authentic sites, but with some variant that can go unnoticed at first glance.
This scam is takes advantage of the similarity of names between official websites and others designed to host malicious software that infects devices; So, when buying make sure that you are really in the official store of the company where you will buy and verify that the URL has next to it the icon of a closed padlock and the “s” after the “http” (https), since this indicates that it is a safe site.
Discounts too good to be true
It is true that this season some establishments have quite attractive offers, but A little common sense will help you distinguish the real offers from the ones that are a hook for a scam. For example, it is sensible that last season’s products are on sale, and even half price; but it is not credible that, for example, the new iPhone has a discount of 70% or more.
Cybercriminals are able to capture the attention of their victims by impersonating highly coveted e-commerce companies or brands and also by announcing incredible discounts; thus, It is important that, before purchasing a product at a price lower than its average in the market, you make sure that the website is legal and the offer is real.