Ever since COVID pushed us head-first into a new everything-from-home way of life, cybercriminals have been more active than ever. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday fast approaching and Christmas just around the corner, you can expect those criminals to be working overtime. In this guide, we’ll show you how to avoid online scams, especially for the holiday period.
Key Takeaways:
- Online scams are especially prevalent during the period between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
- Common scams for this period include fake shopping websites and holiday versions of the perennial phishing scams.
- Double-check websites and pay with a method that allows you to reverse transactions to avoid online shopping scams. Use security software, including a password manager, antivirus and VPN to protect yourself.
Online shoppers in the U.S. spent a total of $24.75 billion online over Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2021, with Cyber Monday taking the biggest piece of the pie. If you’re planning on shopping online for the holidays, you need to do it safely.
We’ll discuss the most common internet scams and how to recognize and avoid them, plus we’ll explain what to do if you fall victim to one.
-
Many people are unfamiliar with online scams and gloss over details. Couple that with the draw of a high reward — or the threat of legal action in some cases — and it’s easy to see how even the most skeptical person can…
