Busy planning for the Christmas and New Year festivities? Be warned. You’d better be more careful while going on a shopping spree over the Internet.

Internet security solutions firm McAfee has come out with a list of 10 ways cyber criminals can take to rip off consumers as they shop online this holiday season. 

The first one is social media scams. The cybercriminals know that this is a good place to catch you off-guard. Because we think we are all interacting with our own ‘friends’.

“Be careful when clicking or liking posts, while taking advantage of contests, ads and special deals posted on your friends’ walls or on the shares you are tagged in” Paula Greve, director at McAfee Labs, said.

“Using multiple devices provides the bad guys with more ways to access your valuable digital assets such as personal information and files, especially if the devices are under-protected,” Paula Greve said.

Criminals are getting smarter and creating authentic-looking social ads and deals. “When you click on them, it will take you to legitimate looking Web sites,” the McAfee executive said.

The second major weapon for cyber criminals is malicious mobile apps (applications). 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.

The other dangers include travel scams (fake sites, offers); holiday spam or phishing; gifts and gift cards (win an iPad types); Skype message attacks; phishing through SMSes (Just like with email phishing, the scammer tries to lure you into revealing information); phoney e-commerce sites, fake charities; and fake classifieds.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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