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It’s the holidays, and everybody wants a piece of you.
“Cyber Monday,” the online counterpart to Black Friday, is not just a busy time for e-tailers. It’s also high season for scammers, who want a taste of the $2.6 billion online shoppers are expected to drop on the biggest online shopping day of the year.
Cyber con artists usually want one of three things: your money, your identity, or your computer. They aim to drain your bank account, use your online credentials to hide their tracks, and turn your computer into a tool they remotely control and rent out to other scammers.
The standard attack comes to you in a “phishing” email, a message that looks like it came from someone you trust, like your bank, employer, or a brand-name retailer. These emails are designed to lure you into opening a file attachment or visiting a website that steals your information or infects your computer. Phishing attacks can also come in online advertisements.
A recent study by brand protection firm Mark Monitor says one in six online consumers is duped into shopping at rogue sites. Another study shows that a quarter of all Facebook ads for luxury goods are for third-party knockoffs, like fake Rolex watches and faux Louis Vuitton bags.
The key component to these scams: you. You have to think that something bogus is the real deal and, just for a moment, treat it as such. Avoiding these scams isn’t particularly difficult. But if you’re not paying close attention (or you’ve had too much of Uncle Bob’s Southern Comfort eggnog) you could end up making a mistake that will cost you a lot, for a long time to come.
Here are five of the more common scams to watch out for:
1. Craaazy Cyber Monday specials.
Some crazy Cyber Monday deals are a little too crazy, which is why anything advertising brand-name electronics at bargain-basement prices should be greeted with extreme skepticism. But greed — or unbridled optimism — often tempts you to click anyway. What happens next?
One scenario is that the ad leads you to a website that wants to steal your information or infect your computer. It could be a bait and switch: That super-cheap iPad is suspiciously out of stock, replaced by models with a heftier price tag; or the price doesn’t include extra-cost “accessories” (like a power supply, memory, or a manual). The goods might be customer returns or refurbished models being sold as new. They could be third-party knockoffs or counterfeit items. Or the site could simply take your credit card information and then vanish.
CR: Dan Tynan, Tech Columnist @yahoo.com
