Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner and scammers are gearing up to flood you with bogus offers
According to Adobe, consumers in the US are predicted to spend a staggering US$143.7 billion this shopping holiday season. Unsurprisingly, smartphones are expected to account for a significant part of the purchases made.
Shopping platforms will be dropping prices and offering deals aiming to unseat the competition. Far too often, what looks too good to be true will, in fact, be a scam designed to separate you from your hard-earned cash. For scammers ’tis the season to be jolly, since unaware shoppers are ripe to be ripped off. Honestly, if that shiny, new iPhone at half its regular price seems too cheap, it probably is. Here are some of the most common types of online shopping scams you should watch out for.
Scam ads
These are an evergreen classic not reserved just for the holidays. You can encounter them all year round, but during shopping holidays they come out in force. Fraudulent ads are usually spread through social media and unfortunately, involve hacked accounts. Usually clicking on such an ad will redirect you to a fraud site, which may be advertising fake goods. In the worst-case scenario, you might just download a malware payload to your device. Refrain from clicking on anything that seems even remotely suspicious and always check for signs of a scam, such as ridiculous prices, grammar mistakes or weird surveys.
Figure 1. Brazilian website promising to include you in a raffle if you fill out a su ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
