:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/ZJNSTMG345DEXIETZO25RNMSFM.jpg "Black Friday: from fake apps and phishing scams, learn how to avoid falling victim to cybercriminals")
The digital security and privacy company Avast has made available to the consumer some advice in order to prevent possible dangers during purchases of the black friday and Cyber Monday, such as trying to buy from trusted pages or sites and paying special attention to phishing scams.
With the sales and offers expected this Friday, November 25 on Black Friday and next Monday on Cyber Monday, the Avast Security Evangelist, Louis Corrons, recalled that the habits of Spaniards are affected by a “growing dependence” on the Internet, so that this medium is used to buy all kinds of items, “dfrom the weekly purchase to the new car”.
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In addition, users take advantage of advantages of the Internet to find “attractive bargains”, which entails that “carefree buyers follow a dangerous path” not aware of the risks that can be found in online shopping, Corrons stressed.
Specific, one in four consumers has been the victim of an online scam in the last decade, mainly through fake stores or advertisements, according to data collected by the software opinion platform Capterra. Among the scammed consumers, only 40 percent got a refund of what was paid after reporting the case to your bank or your bank card company.
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In this sense, up to 96 percent of users fear the security risks of buying on platforms. “Cybercriminals are looking for new ways to take advantage of someone who is just excited to find a good deal. This emotion can cloud your ability to do the proper analysis to determine if the sale is legitimate or not, so many users become victims of scams”, added Luis Corrons.
Cybercriminals often trick the victim by luring them with a really good offer on a product, either via email, SMS or in the guise of fake shopping websites.
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For all this, Avast advises to watch that the purchase platform is not a fake application and, if possible, that the user always buy from trusted sellers. To do this, you need to download the store applications from the app store or from Google Play Store.
In the case of being a website, the buyer must check the url in the address bar of the search engine to confirm that it is an official page, with nomenclatures such as https. Even in the case of being a New shopit would be opportune to carry out a Quick search for opinions from other buyers.
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Avast also alerts about phishing scams -those that pretend to be a legitimate brand or company- and recommends that the user be Watch out for suspicious emails or text messages. Above all, so that links are not clicked of these messages, which could lead to a phishing scam.
The company recommends do not store payment information. Above all, because the Buyer’s personal data should be kept away from the Internet as much as possible. For this reason, it must be avoided that, after completing an online purchase, the user creates an account and allows the payment information to be stored with the seller.
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Following this thread, Avast recommends having a layer of protection between the credit card and potential scammersas offered by third-party payment applications, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Likewise, the company has stressed that it is important to maintain anonymity when making purchases online. With options like hide IP address or protect access databanking or identity, as occurs with the Avast One VPN.
Finally, users have to consider the cost before finalizing the purchase. It’s helpful to search for that same item in other stores to compare prices or even compare products. In this way, it you will avoid falling for potential fake offers that seemed too good to be true.
Source: Elcomercio
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