Tips to Play Safe when Shopping Online

India has come of age when it comes to online shopping. Many Indians are turning towards this easier mode of purchase which is less time consuming and comes with better bargains, but it is also turning out to be an easy hunting ground for opportunistic cybercriminals. Scammers and fraudsters are once again doing the rounds with out-of-the-world offers and speedy deliveries to users’ doorstep.

The spamming process begin with bulk emails to the users. Once the user clicks the link from the mail and has started flipping pages on the spammy website to chosen items to purchase, spammers shift their gear to phishing, where the user falls into the trap of paying for chosen items in the cart with their debit/credit card details.

Before going on an online shopping spree, Symantec advises users to pay attention to the following:

• Avoid shopping at unknown websites
• Be careful while clicking on offers from forwarded messages
• Do not fall for discounts that turn out to be scams
• Be attentive when doing payments
• Unsecured personal smartphones and mobile devices make online shopping more dangerous
• Beware of third party online shopping applications for your hand held devices that can infect it with malware

With the increasing use of such utility devices to do online purchases, booking of tickets, shopping, payments, and storage of personal data on-the-go, Symantec makes every effort to keep you safe with their products. Don’t forget to install antivirus softwares and update your antivirus signatures which can help in early reporting from such frauds.