scams

01/08/2021 By Jason Bean Leave a Comment

5 Smart Tips for Safe Online Shopping in 2021

Online shopping is fast becoming the new norm. Thanks to the freedom, convenience, and ease it offers, you're probably thinking of doing it yourself. However, one of the biggest concerns most online shoppers have is security which is why we recommend to only access trusted shopping sites such as https://www.shoppok.com/bikes-for-sale-cg/hutch-bmx-sp. How secure are your financial details on shopping websites?

Here are a few tips that can help you stay safe in 2021.

1. Start with trusted sites

There are millions of online retail sites today. Most of them are legitimate, but some contain links to spam and malicious content. You, therefore, need to be extra careful when searching for a shopping website.

First, start with the popular and well-known sites like Amazon.com or Ebay.com. You're less likely to be scammed on these sites since you've probably used them before. You can also try your favorite retail stores if they're online, but ensure you know the right web addresses.

Be on the lookout for the popular domain misspelling scams, for instance, a hacker may use Amazon.net instead of Amazon.com. These tricks have been successful for years because they're not conspicuous at first glance.

2. Look for HTTPS URL and a padlock icon

Before sharing your credit union information on an online shopping site, here are the two rules you should follow: Ensure the site’s URL starts with HTTPS, and confirm that a locked padlock icon appears slightly left of the URL bar. (Click here for a full list of privacy tips while shopping online)

The (S) in HTTPS stands for secure and shows that the shopping website has integrated a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. The locked padlock (sometimes green) indicates that your connection to the website is secure.

Avoid sharing any information on sites with just HTTP and without the padlock.

3. Don’t shop over public wi-fi

We’ve heard stories about public wi-fi hotspots and cybercriminals countless times. By now, you should know that while shopping using public Wi-Fi seems convenient, it leaves your data in the hands of hackers.

Personal information such as your credit card details, bank details, phone number, and your emails are but a few of the data a hacker can manipulate from the vulnerabilities of unsecure Wi-Fi.

So, instead of exposing yourself to that much risk, always use your data to complete your online shopping transactions. And if you really have to use Wi-Fi, a simple VPN download will go a long way to improving your security.

But still, if you can avoid insecure public Wi-Fi, do yourself a favor and do it.

4. Keep your software up-to-date

Updating your software is the #1 online security measure every security expert recommends. Whether you're shopping on your phone, laptop, or tablet, ensure that the operating system is up-to-date with the latest updates.

Updating your software fixes any vulnerabilities that cybercriminals may exploit to send malware into your system.

5. Avoid ‘too good to be true’ offers

In any e-commerce store, if any product pricing appears to be too good to be true, it probably is. Don't trust any seller offering such an offer. This is usually a trap by some sellers to collect your credit card information among other data, so they can sell it. In other cases, the product might be of very poor quality. And if you need cargo shorts, make sure to check out different options from sites like https://www.unionbay.com/collections/cargo-shorts-for-men.

Conclusion

When shopping online, getting scammed isn’t just a far-fetched idea. It happens to millions of people every day. You should therefore be careful with how you go about the process if you want to avoid it. With the tips above, we’re confident that you’ll always be one step ahead of the criminals.

Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash

Can You See the Red Flags in This PayPal Account Phishing Attempt

PayPal Phishing Email Screenshot — Click Image to Enlarge

It still surprises me the number of people that get taken by these types of spam emails, normally leading to malware installs, identity theft or other annoyances of life in the digital age. For me I hardly ever click on links in an email if I'm not expecting the email from someone already in advance. Even then I take a few quick seconds to scan the email and look for anything that seems fishy to me. Or should that be "phishy"?

Can you spot all the issues with this email I recently received:

Misspelled the name of the company in the sender's name "Paypl service"
Spammy looking email address! - this isn't always a reliable tell-tell sign to watch out, but more often than not it should give you a heads up. In this case the account name (prior to the @ symbol) seems odd, and in this case the server the email is coming from is also pretty sketchy looking
Not always a red-flag (sadly) but there's numerous instances of letters being capitalized in the body of the message that shouldn't be if following standard grammatical rules
Although not an alert all by itself, anything I see a link that's formatted as a button, I know there's opportunity for the things to be hidden, in this case we look at where the link is going to go by hovering over the link with our mouse in the browser and our browser telling us where in the bottom-left-hand corner
Look at that link! //cat.jp.as.criteo.com/ now I'm going to stop right there because it's interesting to note that "Criteo" is a legitimate advertising platform, so these spammers appear to be either absolutely tracking their efforts of success or potentially spoofing this further to obscure their ploy. Taking a further look at the remaining part of the URL you'll see another website address being include after the "?r=" query string. That leads me to believe that link is being redirected even further to help cover their tracks

Here's another quick Public Service Announcement for you, don't just go clicking on links in emails even when they look like they're coming from legitimate sources.

In this case, if you did indeed have a PayPal account and you were worried about it. Go to their website directly by opening your browser and typing in the URL of the company directly and visiting the site that way. Login to your account and see if there are any warnings or alerts posted there. If the company has a chat feature for support, send them a chat and have them verify if there are or are not any issues with your account that need to be addressed.

04/07/2012 By Jason Bean 1 Comment

What to Look For in Phishing Scams

Here's a little public service announcement for everyone. Many of you may already be aware of this, but I'm thinking there may be a few people that see this link on my Facebook wall that this information may come in handy.

My general rule of thumb for most of my computer activity related to email and attachments I receive is to not trust ANY email from anyone at first glance. This has generally kept me fairly safe for over the last decade as I haven't experienced any kind of debilitating computer virus on my system in that period of time.

I received this email the other day and it caught my attention initially because I do have some accounts with Chase Bank and do most of my banking online. However, on closer inspection, I saw that this was a phishing scam by some nefarious types.

The first thing I actually noticed was that the email was sent to "undisclosed recipients". I kind of doubt Chase, if this was a serious email, would be sending it to a list of recipients. Their systems would probably be automated and send a single email to each recipient individually.

Anytime there's a link in an email like the one in the image (#1), don't click on it, just hover your mouse over the link. When you do, down in the status bar of your browser you should be able to see where the link is about to send you (#2).

As you can tell from this URL, it's probably got nothing to do with Chase Bank, and is probably just an attempt to collect you personal information, perhaps bank account number and password. I didn't click on the link, but I'm sure if I did, the page I would be directed to would look VERY official and "Chase-like". It's all a ruse! This is why it is important for everyone to work with a bank that will protect you personal information. Visit https://atlanticunionbank.com/personal/checking/preferred-checking/ to get valuable information.

So, be alert, yes, even distrusting when it comes to your email. You'll probably be safer if you do. If you have any questions about the validity of an email that's related to a company or service you actually use, just pick up the phone and call them directly to verify any questions they may have about your account or information.

Hope that helps.