How not to stay on Black Friday without buying and without money?

In the run-up to Black Friday on November 27, the main sale of the year for many companies, scammers traditionally become more active. For them it’s a chance to earn huge sums in a few days, well, for the average user, respectively – it’s a chance to lose your money through inattention or a low level of digital literacy. Let’s repeat the basic rules?

Huge discounts can turn off common sense, and now the user enters the data of his card on a fraudulent site, mistaking it for real, and soon his account will be reset… How not to become a victim of fraudsters during the fall sale, explain the experts of the Center of digital expertise Roskatchestvo. Some of the recommendations seem trivial, but they are the ones we most often “fall for”.

Fraudsters are already breaking records for registered fake online stores copying real pages. In 2020, hundreds of fake websites were spotted even a month before the sale. They are now counting in the thousands. Scammers buy places at the top of search results, so keep a close eye on which site you’re shopping on.

Checklist of actions before any online purchase on Black Friday:

Pay attention to the domain name of the site – fraudulent resources have names similar to the well-known stores, but written with mistakes, or with changed symbols of the name, or with other domain endings. This year is very popular fake brand domains, which add a “sale” suffix -off. Be careful!

Buy only from trusted brands and online stores. If you type in a search engine and some site comes up as one of the first, it does not mean it is safe.

If you are not sure about the online store, check the date of registration of the domain with Whois-services. If the domain was registered recently for example, two weeks or a month before the sale , do not buy on it, you can not be sure whether it is a fraudulent site.

Be sure to check whether the site uses the protocol “https” and has a valid security certificate characters “https” and the image of “lock” in the address bar . Otherwise never enter your personal data on such a site.

Compare prices. Pay attention to the price compared to other resources before you buy. If on the site you like the discount is disproportionately large, then this is not a reason to be happy, but wary: you can be enticed to enter your personal information, and especially – the card data. Remember about the free cheese?

Check the details of the online store before buying. On fraudulent sites in most cases these are requisites of a physical person, a card number or an electronic purse, respectively, to buy something on such a site is highly discouraged. It will be a voluntary transfer to an individual and you are unlikely to get your money back.

● You still go to sites from links in emails and messengers? Be sure to enter the address manually! Make sure the email was sent by an authentic and not a fraudulent site?

Don’t fall for techno-manipulations pop-up banners, actions with timers of time left, “N people are watching this product with you” and many others . All of these phrases drive you to make a purchase, they work on your emotions. Always check the site by the checklist above before you enter your personal or payment information on it.

Watch out for mailing lists. As a rule the main channels of phishing scammers are “chain letters”, coming to your mail, messengers and via SMS promising huge discounts, lottery draws or special promotion with additional bonuses, points, and many other things. “Techniques” may be such that you won’t guess that a scammer writes to you, and you are his potential victim. This is why clicking on links in messages and letters is not recommended, as there is too much chance of fake emails.

Always keep anti-virus on your computer and phone, it will help to prevent infection by Trojan-program which allows hackers to rob your bank account.

“Basically, all recommendations can be summed up in one: be very careful. Increase your level of digital literacy not at the expense of financial losses, but by following expert advice. Take our checklist seriously, it can protect you from losing money, time and bad temper. After all, the goal of all shopping is the same – to please!”According to Ilya Loevsky, deputy head of Roskatchestvo.