Online shopping scams: Fake websites, ‘unbelievable offers’ and other frauds that you should watch out for this Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan is around the corner and while you are planning to celebrate it with your family, scammers might be planning to dupe you with different tricks. A surge in online shopping scams has been seen during the festive season. Fake websites, unbelievably low prices, and attractive offers are just some of the tactics used to lure shoppers into fraudulent schemes.

This makes it more important to stay aware of the common online shopping scams and how to protect yourself while buying something online.

Fake websites

This is one of the oldest tricks in the book of scams. Scammers create fake websites with too good-to-be-true offers and discounts. Also, these websites are designed in a way to feels legitimate.

How it works

As mentioned, these websites offer impressive deals and discounts to attract customers. Once victims enter their payment details and make the payment against a product, the entire payment redirects to the scammers along with the banking information which scammers can use to scam them.

How to stay safe from Fake websites scams

To stay protected from such scams, make sure to check its authenticity via several online website checking tools available. Apart from that look for common mistakes in the URL or the website page. Usually, an authentic website does not have any additional character in the URL or spelling mistakes on the website.

Apart from these, you can also check its security status by confirming the HTTPS symbol or Padlock icon on your browser.

Phishing emails

Email promotion is a common method used by companies to promote their product or make people aware of an ongoing offer. Scammers use this trick to lure their victims.

How it works

Usually, these emails appear to be from an authentic company like banks or credit card companies. These emails contain a link that redirects users to a fake website that once again appears to be authentic and asks users to make a payment or enter personal information.

How to stay safe

The most important step in staying away from these scams is to prevent clicking on the links that the main contains. Also, you can use the link expander tool to expand the short URL in the mail and then check for spelling mistakes or any other irregularities.

Fake shipping scams

Scammers send fake alerts for shipments pretending to be from some legitimate shipping companies. Like Phishing emails, these messages also contain fake links to make the payment for the shipment delivery.

How it works

The process is simple. Victims receive a message which includes shipping details (fake) along with a URL to make the payment where scammers ask users to confirm their shipping details as well as make some payments for the shipment to get delivered. Once users enter these details, scammers steal that information and then scam them.

How to stay protected

To stay protected from such scams, verify the details with the shipping company. For instance, you use the shipment number and check the delivery status on the official website, or you can call the customer care number procured from the official website and ask if any such shipment exists.