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The Black Friday is almost upon us. An originally American tradition that for several years has now become common also in our country, “Black Friday” – which this year falls on November 25 – is the term with which it is called a series of big discounts from all the big commercial chains, both in ecommerce and for products that can be purchased in the store. The discounts cover different categories of products – appliances, mobile phones, PCs, books and many others – and traditionally last 24 hours, even if several commercial chains start offering promotions already in the days before Black Friday.
This is an event particularly felt by consumers: according to a 2020 research by AvantGrade.com, only 13% of Italians declare that they are not interested in the initiative. It is, therefore, also a rather tempting opportunity for cybercriminals, who exploit the wave of discounts to try to implement even rather costly scams against unsuspecting consumers. Therefore, it is useful to review some practices to keep in mind when going to take advantage of the discounts offered to us, in order to avoid being deceived or to make our sensitive data easily accessible to malicious people.
- Do not use public WiFi networks
- Pay attention to the URLs of the sites we are going to consult
- Beware of phishing
- Avoid clicking on links
- Be wary of offers that seem too good
- Keep up to date on threats
Do not use public WiFi networks
Public WiFi networks are open, and are therefore not to be considered safe. On open networks, it is in fact easier for hackers to intercept the data we are going to transfer. Therefore, when you are not on a secure WiFi network such as that of your home, for example, it is essential to avoid accessing ecommerce sites. with your password or even worse completing payments, then providing their banking information. On public WiFi networks, the advice is to simply consult the offers without accessing your accounts or completing purchases.
Pay attention to the URLs of the sites we are going to consult
Several cybercriminals operate by creating gods counterfeit sites, with a name and a URL very similar to those of famous brands but with some differences. These are sites that at best can sell counterfeit or non-existent merchandise, and at worst they can take advantage of them to steal passwords and banking information. Therefore make sure that the Url is credible. A useful indicator to watch out for concerns the start of the Url: if it starts with Https instead of the usual Http and there is a green lock icon at the beginning, it means that the site we are browsing is legitimate.
Beware of phishing
Be wary of emails and messages from strangers that require you to click on links or enter Pin or banking information to carry out some verification. As pointed out by MyBank, legitimate payment services they will never require their customers to verify their banking information through these channels. Most of the time, therefore, these messages hide a scam attempt.
The same is true when the message concerns an alleged person parcel in stock but blocked for incomplete data. It is an attempt at trawling, in which scammers send text messages to thousands of numbers in the hope of intercepting someone who, in doubt, is frightened by the idea of losing the product so laboriously ordered during the Black
Avoid clicking on links
If the email arrives from an unknown address, the one that is defined an unmissable offer with a link to check the details, avoid clicking on it. It is in fact likely that it is a scam and that clicking on the link favors the download of a malware or facilitates access to your personal information for malicious people. The most useful thing to do is to search for that same offer on a search engine: if it is actually real, it will appear among the first results; if it does not appear, it is likely that you have avoided a scam attempt.
Be wary of offers that seem too good
It is likely that over the next few weeks you will come across offers that appear to be incredibly advantageous. Be wary of them, because most of the time they hide an attempted fraud. The best thing to do is search for the offer on a search engine and see if on the various forums and blogs where consumers exchange opinions and impressions on Black Friday this offer has been reported by someone. Most of the time it will be like this.
Keep up to date on threats
Another tip to always have in mind is to keep informed about the main cyber threats In circulation. The site of the Postal and Communications Police, for example, is regularly updated with the main ongoing scams and cybercrimes, with advice on how to avoid them as well. The advice is to consult it before making any online purchase.
More generally, there is an easy way to find out more about the maxi discount marathon and offers to which Amazon and many other manufacturers and retailers will join: the coverage of Wired in the coming days will in fact tell everything there is to know about how to find the best deals, anticipating some of the discounts proposed in advance. Furthermore, with the approach of the fateful dates of 25 and 28 November (Black Friday and Cyber Monday), all the most tempting offers will end up in the spotlight on our dedicated page and on our Telegram channel.
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