December 12th, 2019 | Updated on June 25th, 2021
During the big seasonal sale, not only shops promise discounts up to 70%, but also cyber criminals start to work more actively.
While buyers think more about saving and buying everything they like, criminals try to get information about bank cards to get money out of them.
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We have collected tips on how to secure your ticket and buy on sales without the risk of losing money.
1. Use VPN
VPN allows you to send encrypted data over ordinary, unencrypted communication networks.
But in addition to providing you with a confidential and secure web browser, there are other benefits to using it. For example, you can check on CyberGhost VPN benefits on VPNServicePro to knowing more about it.
A secure VPN connection essentially hides your web activity by encrypting your “digital traces.”
Making it extremely difficult to intercept your online connections, and if you can do so, it will be almost impossible to decrypt them. At the same time, it is not necessarily something dark and terrible.
In real life, not every person you see on the street is desperate to steal your wallet. On the Internet, as in real life, there are millions of good people, and therefore there are other reasons why VPN should be used. Still, you have to be cautious.
2. Authenticate Sites Before Shopping
The following recommendation may seem banal: it is unlikely that you will confuse a familiar AliExpress or Farfetch and accuse it with forgery.
But sometimes criminals create very similar copies of popular online stores. Clone sites may contain errors in the text or can be slightly different from the originals.
In the fake online stores, buyers are usually lured by phishing: cybercriminals send letters, for example, with notification of large discounts and a link.
A person goes to the site, pick goods, and when trying to pay for them – the data of the payment card are accessed by intruders, after which they withdraw money from it.
It is worth paying attention not only to who the letter came from, but also to the address line in the browser. If the usual site name or sender address contains dashes or several dots, it is better not to order anything on such a site.
The press service of the AliExpress also advises checking whether the connection to the website is protected. In this case, the title should appear in the browser bar, or the title should be green.
3. Do Not Save Your Credit Card Data In The Browser
It is not recommended not to save credit card data, login, and password from mail or other Internet services in the browser.
If the computer is infected with a virus, the saved data may be stolen. Well, we will enter figures every time and not so conveniently, but safely.
4. Get A Separate Card Or Account For Purchases
To protect your money further, it is better to create a separate card or virtual account for purchases and transfer there exactly the amount you plan to spend. Even if you pay with your regular card, it’s worth putting a limit on the purchase amount.
Not all online stores use SMS (3D-secure) payment confirmation technology because sometimes card data is enough for fraud to pay for something with your money.
5. Register Special Mail For Online Stores
For purchases in online stores, you should register a separate mail. Using your primary email address, you leave a digital trail on which cybercriminals can find mail to which other social media and services accounts are linked.
By creating a new mail, you will also be able to protect yourself from all the special offers that will tempt you to spend more when you do not plan to do so.
6. Don’t Share Your Information By Phone
One of the famous techniques used by cybercriminals is phone calls allegedly on behalf of bank employees, but sometimes they are also presented by online store operators. The scheme is similar: with the help of a special program.
The telephone number from which the criminal calls are replaced with the real one and asks to name for verification card data or code received from the bank. We just remind you that you can’t tell anyone about this information.
