To prevent Black Friday from becoming a Black Swan

On the night of November 25, the famous large-scale Black Friday promotion starts – days of sales that will last until the end of Sunday. Many retailers started sales even earlier, from November 11, which is World Shopping Day. The days of sales with discounts will continue after Black Friday, smoothly flow into New Year’s Eve, but it is Black Friday that is considered the period of maximum discounts.

During the sales period, online buyers are attacked by excitement, fear of missing out, making the most successful purchase, finding gifts for all, all, all relatives and friends, updating Christmas decorations, creating comfort at home … One offer is better than another, eyes run wide. In such an environment, it is very convenient for cyber fraudsters to set up their networks. New Year’s sales for swindlers – the time of “haymaking”. They send out spam emails with links to phishing sites, copy the resources of well-known retailers, promise profitable discounts or goods for almost nothing.

“Online scammers usually try to lure buyers with great offers, however, during Black Friday their activity increases significantly, because it is so easy to disguise fraudulent options among real discount promotions from retailers,” warns Dmitry Ibragimov, cybersecurity expert Main Directorate of the Bank of Russia for the Central Federal District. – The tricks that scammers use on sale days vary. And of course, they all imitate great deals and discounts.

A popular ploy is when cyberscammers create clone websites of well-known brands. You can easily stumble upon them through search results, through advertising on social networks. In addition, attackers send out spam mailings on behalf of brands with a link to a clone site. It is difficult to recognize a fake, since a lot of letters with great offers and promotions are pouring into the buyer’s mail as if from a cornucopia. The calculation of scammers is as follows: retailers on sales days, trying to outdo each other, offer more and more tempting conditions for purchase, at the same time, buyers eagerly sort out options, feel the excitement, which reduces vigilance. In normal times, offering a 99.9 percent discount causes wariness and skepticism, but at this time it is accepted as the norm. The rule “free (well, or very cheap) cheese is only in a mousetrap” stops working.

The swindlers also send offers to participate in “secret sales”, pretend to be representatives of brands leaving Russia, create sites with sales at “bargain prices” of popular brands of household appliances and electronics. The purpose of all these tricks is the same – to swindle the card details and gain access to the victim’s accounts, emptying them. When people themselves leave confidential card details and provide fraudsters with access to accounts, banks do not compensate funds.

“When making purchases during the sales period, despite the excitement that arises, as well as the fear of missing out on profits, you must first of all keep your cool and follow the rules of cybersecurity,” recommends Dmitry Ibragimov.

So remember the rules of safe shopping during this hectic time:

Firstly. Universal advice – for online shopping, get yourself a separate or virtual card, set a spending limit on it, or deposit money immediately before buying. Even if you accidentally enter the details of this card on a phishing site and scammers get access to the money on it, in any case they will not be able to take possession of the money on your main card, where the main funds are stored.

Second. Make purchases only on proven reliable resources. Save the official addresses of your favorite stores in your browser bookmarks in advance. Pay attention to the address bar of the page. The address must begin with https, and the closed padlock sign must be at the beginning of the address bar. In addition, you can protect yourself from phishing pages by making purchases through mobile applications of stores. Download applications to your smartphone only from the official page of the marketplace.

Third. Don’t click on suspicious links from unknown senders. If you have received a letter with a logo and name from a well-known store that has a link, carefully study it before clicking. Hover over the link with the mouse, see how it is displayed in the lower left corner of the browser, whether it matches the link of the real online store.

Fourth. Compare prices on different sites. Read reviews. Remember that one of the tricks of merchants during sales is to raise prices, and then make a discount, returning the price tag to its previous level.

Fifth. Install an antivirus on all your devices and update it regularly. A good antivirus package contains protection against phishing and malware.

Sixth. Do not make purchases through free open public Wi-Fi networks. Fraudsters can quietly intercept data through a fake network.

Happy shopping!

Yana MAYEVSKAYA.