Black Friday is coming: the November 25, 2022 you will find many offers on products of all kinds. But the truth is that many discounts have already begun, with many companies and online stores offering promotions for almost all of November. But how to recognize the real offers when you shop online? How to avoid scams during Black Friday 2022? Here are some tips to avoid taking risks.
How to avoid online scams during Black Friday 2022
More than 80% of Italians can’t wait for November to arrive to shop. Black Friday November 25th and Cyber Monday November 28th are now marked on the calendar of those who want to save. Unfortunately, however, also hackers and scammers have these days circled in red and they are ready to defraud those who do not pay due attention.
If you are used to online shopping, you already know many of these tips. But in any case, it is also worth reviewing the basic safety rulesto avoid downloading malware, providing information about your credit cards or buying products that will never arrive (or will be different from what you were looking for).
Beware of phishing (also via SMS and messaging apps)
If some cyber attacks become incredibly complex, the truth is that most online scams take place with tools that we are all familiar with by now. One of them is the phishing (or its variant via message, lo smishing).
You receive an email or message offering an unmissable promotion, asking you to click on a link. Instead of taking you to a legitimate store, it makes you download malware which will then steal your data. Or you get a message asking you to verify your credentials on Amazon, making you enter your credit card details and then empty your account and leave you with debts. Or a message from a courier who tells you to answer absolutely, because it’s there a blocked parcel in storage.
All these messages or emails are meant to scam you. No e-commerce will ask you to confirm your data, unless after a specific action: if you have not asked to change your password on Amazon, ignore the message. The same goes for ‘mystery’ parcels: the email with tracking arrives immediately after the purchase, ignore it if you haven’t done any shopping yet.
But to recognize scam emails and messages without a doubt, check:
- Your email address or phone numberor. There are usually typos in emails (@amazo.it, instead of @amazon.it). If you are not sure, copy and paste the address or number into a search engine: the first results will tell you if it is an official contact of the company or a scam
- If he Email text contains typosit becomes more likely to be a scam
- Do not click on links or download email attachments, unless you requested a password change or something else
- Your browser or email app will warn you of suspicious activity: do not disable these options unless you are absolutely sure of the content of the mails and messages
Avoid scams during Black Friday 2022: check the URLs well
Whether you get there via a phishing email, via a WhatsApp share, or in any other way, often to perpetrate Black Friday scams, hackers from they will direct you to a fake site.
These are known sites that simulate e-Commerce: reminiscent in color and design the various Amazon, ePrice or the Mediaworld or Unieuro stores. But instead of honestly selling products, they give you counterfeit goods or worse, they steal passwords or banking information.
To make sure the site is legitimate, check the URL, the site address. First, it must start with ‘https’ e non ‘http’. That extra ‘s’ certifies that that site is encrypted and it is not possible for anyone to read your data while you fill in the personal data to pay and have the products sent to you. No honest eCommerce will have an http site. Many browsers block browsing or warn users when they arrive at http sites, so just be careful to avoid them.
Also, check that the address is legitimate. If finisce in .it o .com (or at best in .de for Germany, .es for Spain, etc) it’s more likely to be serious. But above all, do attention to spelling (and don’t go to Uniero or Mediawoll). When in doubt, it is always better to go to the official website: if you are warned of an unmissable offer on Amazon, check that it exists by going to the official website and searching for keywords.
Avoid public WiFi networks
Even if you shop on reputable sites, there is a risk that someone will steal your credentials if you don’t transmit them securely. The advice is therefore to do not use public WiFi networks to make purchases.
For example, if you are surfing the University network or that of other institutions to see the shop windows, switch to the 4G/5G network of your smartphone to log in and enter data for online payments. Or save the links and then reopen them when you are at home or in the office with a secure and private network. In this way, you will reduce the risk that someone can steal your credit card numbers or login passwords.
Avoid scams during Black Friday: don’t believe the exaggerated offers
Finally, the most important tip: If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
Don’t get us wrong: the possibility of saving even a lot is there. In America we talk about offers “buster“, where people queue for miles outside stores after Thanksgiving, waiting for doors to open, crammed in to the point of begging to tear them down. These are usually promotions to empty the stock, but almost always they are used to get many people to flock to the store, so that those who don’t have time to grab the best offer buy something else.
But why should a store make a similar offer and send it to you conveniently via email? If you see amazing offers (such as “80% discounts”), the advice is to look for that promotion on Google: if it’s really that advantageous, specialized sites (for example us at techprincess.it in the field of technology) will undoubtedly report it .
By complying with basic cybersecurity rules and with a little thought, it becomes possible to avoid online scams even during the hectic shopping days of Black Friday. If you don’t want to miss the offers, subscribe to the Telegram channel of our website at the link above: they are all safe (and convenient) offers.