Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Christmas is coming and with it some new online scams

With Xmas coming and an awful lot of UK shoppers housebound because of the weather, it looks like a record number of online purchases are going to be made this year. As ever the undoubted convenience and considerable price savings that online shopping brings has to be partially offset by the risk of being hit by a cyber scam by those whose aim it is to take all of the good out of the internet and steal surfer's information for their own personal aims.

Initial surveys show that online shopping is already up fifteen percent from the same period in 2009. And with updates in online shopping technology constantly appearing the amount of time that a web shopper needs to spend online to complete a successful to complete a successful purchase has actually decreased.

One of the worries that internet security experts have quoted before the season got under way is the increased amount of purchases that surfers are making through social media website applications where security can sometimes found to be lacking.

Recent research has shown that more than forty percent of surfers accessing social network sites, with Facebook being obviously the most popular, then the vulnerability to click on links that are run by hackers are also more likely. Hackers have become so sophisticated over the last few years that they are now more than capable of setting up entire shopping sites that are totally bogus and will lead those full of Christmas shopping cheer to a scam that can come in many forms, from buying a product that doesn't exist to implanting some viscous malware on to their computer.

Another popular ploy is to create false e-mails or even SMSs ostensibly from a friend complete with a false link that will lead the unsuspecting an trusting down the same path.

Without wishing to appear like a Xmas spoilsport the best advice that anyone can give these days is to suggest that what should be at the top of everyone's wish list this festive season is a proper, effective and powerful anti-virus software program. In relation to the financial damage and upsets that they can prevent they cost very little and by installing anti-virus software on your computer, you can sit back and open the rest of your presents content in the knowledge that the only unexpected visitors you will get this year will have red noses and long white beards.

 

< Back