Black Friday has kicked off the official holiday shopping season, so here’s a rundown of the most common scams aimed at shoppers — and how you can avoid them:
The name game
Scammer-run websites use the names of popular items and retailers to steal credit card and password information or deliver malware. You’re led to them when you do online keyword searches, including terms like “discount toys.”
Search away to compare prices, but before you click on links, carefully read the URL. Last season, scores of scammer-run websites spoofed online retailer Overstock — usually with extra words, letters or numbersbetween “overstock” and the dot-com. Characters may follow the .com to take you to a product page, but legitimate websites should be like amazon.com, not amazonBUY0567.com. You’re safest when you type website addresses yourself, rather than clicking on links found through search engine keyword results.
Beware of cybersquatters — websites that tinker with well-known brand names to sell cheap knockoffs, or just steal payments and deliver nothing. Some of these are based overseas, so in addition to misspelled names — say, Tifany instead of Tiffany — avoid American brands being sold at an Internet address that ends with the ID letters of a foreign country or co.mn, indicating a company in Mongolia. You can also check website ownership at WhoIs.net. Also, never give payment card or other information unless the page’s address begins with “https://” Read More.
Gift card grift
Thieves copy codes with portable scanners or pen and paper, and play the waiting game. By dialing toll-free numbers listed on gift cards, they find out when those cards were activated and their value to spend online, or they generate cloned copies for in-store use. When your intended recipient tries to redeem the card, it’s worthless.
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