Shop online? 7 scams to watch out for !!!!

Survey shows that 70% Indians plan to shop online during the holiday season. Here are the scams to watch out for while you shop online: 1 Social media scams: Scammers use channels, like Facebook and Twitter, just like email and websites to scam consumers during the holidays. Be careful when clicking or liking posts, while taking advantage of contests, ads and special deals that you get from your “friends”. Criminals are getting savvier with authentic-looking social ads and deals that take consumers to legitimate looking websites. In order to take advantage of the deals or contests, they ask them for personal information that can obtain a shopper’s credit card number, email address, phone number or home address. 2 Malicious Mobile Apps: As smartphone users we are app crazy, downloading over 25 billion apps[1] for Android devices alone! But as the popularity of applications has grown, so have the chances that you could download a malicious application designed to steal your information or even send out premium-rate text messages without your knowledge. 3 Travel Scams: Before you book your flight or hotel to head out for a holiday, keep in mind that the scammers are looking to hook you with too-goodto-be-true deals. Phony travel webpages, sometimes using your preferred company, with beautiful pictures and rock-bottom prices are used to get you to hand over your financial details. 4 iPhone 5, iPad Mini and other hot holiday gift scams: The kind of excitement and buzz surrounding Apple’s new iPhone 5 or iPad Mini is just what cybercrooks dream of when they plot their scams. They will mention must-have holiday gifts in dangerous links, phony contests (e.g: “Free iPad”) and phishing emails as a way to grab computer users’ attention to reveal personal data or click on a dangerous link that could download malware onto your machine. 5 Skype Message Scare: People around the world will use Skype to connect with loved ones this holiday season, but be aware of a new Skype message scam that attempts to infect the machine, and even holds your files for ransom. 6 Bogus gift cards: Cybercriminals can’t help but want to get in on the action by offering bogus gift cards online. Be wary of buying gift cards from third parties; just imagine how embarrassing it would be to find out that the gift card you gave your cousin was fake! 7 Phony E-tailers: Phony ecommerce sites, that appear real, try to lure you into typing in your credit card number and other personal details, often by promoting great deals. But, after obtaining your money and information, you never receive the merchandise, and your personal information is put at risk.