Six cybersecurity tips to avoid online shopping scams this holiday season

• S2 Grupo has urged to use secure payment methods that require double verification and, whenever possible, to opt for those that have an associated return insurance.

• Avoid making purchases with your cell phone from public places or be wary of excessively flashy offers are some of the recommendations made by cybersecurity experts.

Valencia, December 15, 2022.- At Christmas, online shopping increases considerably and, no matter how familiar we are with this practice, it is very important to follow some protocols to avoid falling into the temptation of cyber scams, which usually appear in the form of big discounts. The team at cybersecurity company S2 Grupo has highlighted some cybersecurity tips that can be essential to be cautious and protect ourselves against cybercrime.

"First of all, our recommendation is to never buy from unknown stores through links we see on social networks. Cybercriminals can easily pretend that this link takes you to the real website, when in fact it is not and what they are doing is obtaining all the information you are depositing there if you make a purchase, for example," said José Rosell, managing partner of S2 Grupo.

In this sense, the recommendation is never to click on this link and search for the store in Google. If it appears, then look for the offer that has caught our attention.

"A second issue to keep in mind, and one that we always stress, is to be wary of very flashy discounts. If we see them, we need to verify that they are real by following the same protocol as above. This is a very attractive hook that even people who are used to online shopping tend to fall for, for fear of missing out on the offer," said Miguel A. Juan, managing partner of S2 Grupo.

Along with this, cybersecurity experts also recommend, whenever possible, to pick up the items we buy in the store, because this ensures that the payment will be made securely.

Fourthly, from S2 Grupo it is recommended to avoid making purchases with the cell phone in public places because others could see what we buy and take note of our PIN or unlocking pattern, know personal data, etc.

The fifth piece of advice is to never make purchases connected to a public wifi network because it is very easy for these to have been tapped by cybercriminals and they would have access to all the data we handle, including ID, passwords, bank applications, accounts, etc.  

Sixthly, and in relation to payment methods, S2 Grupo experts have pointed out that, although smart devices use encryption to mask credit card information, there are multiple ways to verify that we made the purchase and it is important to have them activated. Some of these are biometric authorization, fingerprint, face and even heart rate. A safe way to pay for online purchases is to use a payment method with cash back insurance.

In the case of opting for payment by credit card, we have to verify that we do it on a page with https secure protocol, so that the card information is encrypted, and ensure that it is redirected to an external page with double authentication factor.

On the other hand, we have Paypal which is very secure and we always access with a user and always request signature or double authentication. In this case, all payments are covered by buyer protection, so in case of error or scam the money would be refunded.

If the option we use is Bizum, the first thing we have to do is verify the identity of the online store requesting it and activate the two-factor authentication with our bank.

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Más información

Patricia Berzosa - Prensa S2 Grupo - T. 658 810 015 - patricia.berzosa@ext.s2grupo.es