Fraudsters may be licking their chops over nefarious plots to scam online
holiday shoppers, but good old common sense can be an effective security
shield against their ploys, researchers say.
For starters, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, said
Andrew H. Te, CEO of PowWeb, a hosting company for small and medium-sized
businesses.
As more people swarm online to do some holiday shopping this year, Te and
his company are putting the word out for online shoppers to remember the basics
of safe navigation.
They have a lot more people to warn. According to AC Neilsen, 84 percent
of Americans are planning to buy at least one holiday gift online this year.
That’s up by nearly 10 percent compared to the same time last year. Indeed,
even by mid-November, Nielsen//NetRatings’s sixth annual holiday e-shopping
index showed a 60 percent jump in online shopping visits from the week
prior.
If you’re among the swarm of shoppers heading for e-commerce sites,
don’t forget tips offered by the FBI and Federal Trade Commission to avoid
Internet scams, PowWeb said. They include:
Web site, for personal, financial or identity information such as Social
Security numbers, bank account numbers or passwords.
visiting the known Web address of a company’s account maintenance page.
Unfamiliar addresses for this are probably fake.
information. Look for third-party verifications such as those offered by TrustE, BBBOnline and VeriSign.
by contacting the company directly by phone or through a Web site or e-mail
address known to be authentic.
their local police department and file a complaint with the FBI and the FTC.
And overall, as they say in the bricks and mortar world, when in doubt,
Internet service provider.
check it out.
