Without a doubt, Black Friday is one of the days of the year when more purchases are made online. It is also a prelude to Christmas shopping, and in some cases, we take advantage of this date to make some of the main purchases. Cybercriminals are no strangers to this reality, and they prepare their campaigns to take advantage of this event. Today in this article, we are going to explain how to avoid the attacks and scams that you can suffer on Black Friday through a series of tips.
This year 2020 has had a sad protagonist, the Covid-19 pandemic. It has undoubtedly transformed the way we work with the increase in remote working and the use of cloud services. Our shopping habits have also changed with the considerable increase in online purchases. Now comes Black Friday, one of the most important shopping events of the year, and due to the current situation, there will be many more purchases online than in previous years. Next, we are going to offer you a series of recommendations so that you do not end up being victims of attacks and scams that you can suffer on Black Friday.
Buy safely and prepare our devices
If we want to buy online safely, it is very important that we take into account several aspects. In the event that we are reckless, it could end up with the theft of our banking or personal details, and end up regretting it for a long time.
One very important thing when buying online is to have a secure connection . An example could be our home Wi-Fi network that must have a WPA2 or WPA3 encryption together and a strong password. When we refer to a secure password, it must have more than 12 characters that includes uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols such as @. Another option that we could also consider safe is to use the connection with mobile data that we can make on our smartphones.
The danger is in buying on a public Wi-Fi network , be it that of an airport, shopping center, cafeteria or another type of business. The problem is that we do not know who may be behind it, it could be a hook to steal information, and there could even be cybercriminals who could access the traffic to steal our information.
If possible, another thing that improves security is the use of a VPN , if we are on a public Wi-Fi network it should be mandatory. Because it encrypts point-to-point content, it keeps our connection safe. Therefore, in insecure public networks we must not:
- Make purchases online.
- Enter into accounts and platforms that require username and password.
Another very important aspect is having our equipment updated . Be it a computer, laptop or smartphone etc. you must have the latest security updates installed, in addition, you must have good antivirus software, and if possible, an antimalware.
Choose a secure payment method
One of the things that can avoid or alleviate the scams that you can suffer on Black Friday, is choosing a secure payment method. In that sense, one of the most interesting is PayPal, which protects us in two ways. One is that the seller does not have our credit card, and another is that they have a buyer protection policy, in case there is a problem with the order.
Another interesting method is prepaid debit cards . This type of card only works with the balance that you have in that moment. So, for example, if you only charge the amount you are going to spend, they can never take money from you. In the worst case, at most, they could take away the amount you had at that time. An example would be the Bnext prepaid card, although large banks such as Santander or BBVA also have theirs.
Choose well where to buy and the offers that come to us
A good idea to avoid problems is to choose a good place to shop. In this sense, large prestigious online stores such as Amazon and PCComponentes are good choices. So are the websites of the shopping centers that we have nearby such as MediaMarkt, El Corte Inglés, etc. Another thing that we must flee from is unknown websites that have no reputation and that offer abnormally low offers . In these stores, you have to do a Google search and check their reputation.
The website where we buy must be HTTPS , the padlock icon will appear in the address bar of our browser. This means that our connections to the website are encrypted, so that we can make our payments peace of mind. On the other hand, in the unencrypted HTTP you do not have to make transactions under any circumstances. That a website has HTTPS does not mean that it is a secure website, but that the communication from our web browser to the web server is carried out safely, a malicious website with scams could perfectly use HTTPS to give a sense of security.
On the other hand, you have to be very careful with malicious links . For example, in emails that could lead us to fake websites or lead us to a phishing attack . The best thing in these cases is to make purchases directly from the official website. We must also be careful with the discount coupons that we receive through a message from a social network or e-mail, sometimes you can end up downloading harmful software.
Finally, the scams that you can suffer on Black Friday can be of many types, you have to be alert, be prudent and take the time to check that everything is in order.
