Help & Support

Christmas is coming, and bringing along with it the joys (and pains) of shopping for presents for the special people in your life. Of course, these days things are terribly convenient for the more relaxed folk out there, since your nearest shop can be sitting right on your lap.

On the other hand, online shopping brings with it its own set of hazards, and cyber-crooks are only too happy to cash in on the festivities at other people's expense. So, we offer the following guidelines to safeguarding yourself, your personal details, and your money.

General awareness

We say this very often, but the first line of defence always lies with the user. It pays to be aware of what's happening in your browser window, but we are aware that not everyone is a tech-savvy gadget junkie.

One particular sign everyone should look out for though take place in the address bar of your browser, when you've filled your cart and you're busy with the checkout process, make sure the address starts with https://. This is a sign that the browser traffic is encrypted and protected, and a legitimate site will always have this security in place when they are dealing with sensitive information like credit card details. Also make sure that the address is correct - if you see a URL different from the one you expect to see, play it safe.

If you have any doubts whatsoever, rather stop what you're doing and ask for advice.

Make sure your AV is up to date

Your antivirus and security software is crucial and you should make every effort to keep this up to date. Most, if not all, antivirus applications take care of this automatically, but it pays to be sure. This should keep you protected from random malware attacks that may attempt to install trojans and keyloggers onto your system.

It is better not to try and keep your AV updated manually. The one day you forget could be the one day something slips past.

Shop with well-known entities

This probably isn't a good suggestion from the point of view of any new online start-ups, but the fact of the matter is that cybercriminals will very often take advantage of the unwary by putting up sites that look legit and offer deals that are too good to be true.

Locally, such online shops such as Pixmania, eBuyer, Littlewoods, Argos and many many others have massive variety and have had many years to establish their trust and authenticity. If you're looking to shop from an overseas location, Amazon is always a good bet, but if you're not sure, take the time to read up about the online store you're planning to use. If you come across some really bad reviews, or even more suspiciously, a complete lack of information about the site, it may be advisable to steer clear.

Keep an eye out for phishing attempts

Holiday shopping season is prime time for scammers, and if anything you should have noticed an increase in the level of spam entering your inbox. Common types of phishing mails include notifications from sites such as Facebook , Twitter, Gmail and many others, or you might get messages from your bank asking you to verify your details. Clicking on links in those e-mails will take you to pages that look 100% like your bank's site and which asks you to enter your details. Or the e-mail will ask for passwords and/or other information.

Don't EVER click on links in these mails. Rather visit the site directly if you want to make sure, since a legit notification will be present on the site itself. If you still aren't sure after this, rather contact the bank itself.

Keep a close eye on your bank statements

Don't wait until the end of January to stare in horror at your bank statements, because by that time it might be too late. Keep track of what you buy with your cards, and try to check your bank statements at least once a week.

If you notice anything out of place - contact your bank immediately and lodge a query.

When in doubt, change your passwords

Actually, you may want to go and change them anyway, especially if you are guilty of using the same password on more than one site. Once hackers manage to latch onto a particular e-mail/password combination, they will very often try that same combination on multiple sites, hoping for a hit. And even if you don't consider these sites important, they can be used for other nefarious purposes, such as posting links to malware sites.

Remember, if you've been using a particular online profile for a while, people will know it and trust it, and are more likely to click on links posted by that profile..

Scan, scan, scan

Doing antivirus scans sounds like an annoying and time-consuming task, but the truth is that you can schedule them to run automatically at any time you choose. Try and schedule this for a time you know the PC will be on - K7's Antivirus Solutions can run a full scan and barely slow down your system while you are working, but if you prefer not having a scan running in the background while you are taking care of intensive tasks (such as gaming or video editing) schedule the task to run overnight while you sleep.

In closing

While this article was written specifically with the Christmas shopping season in mind, you should keep these points in consideration at all times of the year. The internet has made a lot of things in life more convenient by providing availability 24 hours a day, but at the same time this has given criminal elements access to millions of people who can fall prey to their tactics.

Season's Greetings, and shop safely.