“If you build it, he will come”.
That was a promise that turned out to be true, and favorable to Kevin Costner’s character in the film Field of Dreams. However, rich lawyers or barristers from Nigeria (or other African nations) sending you an email stating that they will send you millions of dollars from their deceased clients in exchange for a few thousand dollars in fees are false and bad. Similarly are the attachments in emails from people and companies you do not know or have had no contact with.
The “Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Hacks and Scams” infographic shows a plethora of other nefarious ways to separate you from your money, or to take your personal information. More importantly, it provides an even greater number of recommendations to do.
We always knew that you should go with sites that you know. Yet, that piece of advice has a personal and recent relevance to us. We were recently in need of free software to provide greater online security. We suspected that such things would be filled with spyware and/or malware, and various searches reinforced that perspective.
However, we eventually found a review by Cnet, which we knew to be a reputable site, and took advantage of the recommendation.
The infographic also reinforces the obvious. It states that almost all online sales are done in the month from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Criminals also know this, and try their tactics to try to lure people to them. Even if a hundredth of one percent fall for it, it can mean big losses for consumers and great wealth for the criminals.
Likes: We found the “Advice for consumers” section to be among the most helpful and useful section of any infographic here at this site.
Dislikes: There is virtually nothing to dislike in this infographic.
The holiday season signals the time of year when consumers are often at the highest risk of falling victim to hackers and scammers whose schemes can fool even the most experienced online shoppers. This infographic advises web merchants and consumers on how to avoid Black Friday and Cyber Monday attacks.
