Scammers don’t take time off – while you and your family are relaxing over the holidays, scammers are taking every chance they can get to take money from unsuspecting victims. Have you seen an offer that’s too good to be true? Hold off on reaching for your card, because you could be taken advantage of!
Last Christmas season, scammers stole an estimated £2 Million from British citizens just looking to do some online shopping. Don’t be part of this year’s statistic! Below are some key things to look out for when buying online!
What to look out for:
- Spoofed URLs – Triple check that the URL of the site you’re buying from is legitimate – scammers often create convincing fake versions of storefronts such as Amazon. Check the URL for misspellings or extra letters (e.g., amazonn.com)
- Too good to be true? – Have you found an expensive item or something sold out everywhere at a price too good to be true? Then it’s more than likely not to be trusted! Scammers will try and sell you desirable items at a cheap price to obtain your information, giving you nothing in return
- Social Media Ads – Scammers aren’t above spending money to push their bogus sites and products to people on social media – before you go through with any purchases, do your research on these sites and look at reviews to see what other people have to say first!
- Payment Methods – As a general rule of thumb, you should avoid any sites that only accept payments via direct bank payment or money transfer services, as if it turns out to be a fake, that money is gone forever.
- Dodgy Links – Like always, text and email scams will be prevalent this season. You should always be weary of clicking on any links sent to you through emails or texts if you don’t know the recipient.
Nothing ruins the holiday spirit more than realising you’ve been scammed out of your hard earned money. Follow these things to look out for when shopping online to make sure your money stays secure!
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Scam emails can be reported to report@phishing.gov.uk
Scam texts can be reported by forwarding them to 7726
Phishing websites can be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre
