how to avoid scams when shopping online

The bone data They’re not lying and tell us that online shopping scams grew tremendously during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many users started shopping online for the first time. But even after the pandemic, in 2022, 30% of purchase scams took place during online purchases, and don’t think that these are scams only related to the purchase you are making, but often, scammers also tend to seek personal information from the user.

The most common scams when purchasing online

The first and most important way to avoid scams when buying online is to know them, because knowing the ways that exist to deceive you makes it easier to carry them out and avoid them in time. One of the most common methods is email phishing: These are scam messages that appear to come from a legitimate store or organization and encourage you to click on a link, often asking for personal information. They often claim that there is a problem with your account, that your password has expired, or that they need to verify your information for some reason.

First of all, keep in mind that a legitimate store or organization will never ask for your personal information, so NEVER provide it. On the other hand, in most cases these emails come from suspicious email addresses that are clearly not official, they usually have grammatical and even spelling mistakes, and in fact they often arrive in a language that is not yours. Can you imagine Amazon Europe writing to you in English? Well that’s it: send it directly to the SPAM folder of your email.

Another common way to commit Internet scams is to create fake online stores, which look very similar to legitimate products or offer products with fairly deep (and suspicious) discounts. Obviously, in this type of store, once payment is made you will not receive any goods, so the advice here to avoid scams is to first check that the store is legitimate, and then if something seems too cheap to be true. …that’s surely the case.

Finally, be very careful with the supposed charities. Christmas is often associated with charity, and unscrupulous scammers might also illegally impersonate an existing NGO, or even invent one, to get your money.

How to identify and avoid scams

The first recommendation to avoid scams and fraudulent purchases that we can give you in this regard is to use your head and be very careful where you click. However, there is also a series of tips that will be good to keep in mind, especially if you do not usually buy online or if until Christmas you had never decided to do so:

• Always check the URL (web address). If it doesn’t seem legitimate to you, delete it automatically and always make sure it is https and not http (the s indicates a secure connection, which reduces the risk of your data being intercepted ). For example, be careful with amazon (the o is a zero) or similar.
• Don’t trust the store emails you receive. For example, if you receive an email to reset your password without asking, it is probably a scam attempt.
• Never click on a shortened link, as it can hide malicious sites. Also be careful with QR codes.
• If you connect to public networks (like shopping mall WiFi for example), avoid making any financial transactions or entering personal data.
• If you don’t know a store, always look for reviews and opinions from other users.
• Try using a different password for everything and make sure they are complex passwords (more than 8 characters, upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols).
• Use a VPN to secure your data because since it encrypts your internet connection and hides your real IP address, it is very difficult for malicious users to access your data.

A VPN can be your best ally in avoiding scams

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a technology that allows you to establish encrypted and secure connections over the Internet. This connection routes traffic through a secure server operated by the VPN provider, encrypting your data, hiding your real IP address and thus improving your online security and privacy.

If you want to try a really good VPN, we recommend the services of NordVPN (this year it won the ADSLZone 2023 Awards for Best VPN), because it offers exceptional services at a very competitive price, and really, if you are afraid of being scammed when purchasing online, you should do it. you easily and economically.

• NordVPN uses a standard 256-bit AES encryptionVirtually impossible to counter brute force attacks, so your data will benefit from strong protection against external access.
• They have more than 5,000 servers in 60 countriesso you will always have at your disposal the fastest server (or the one from which you most want to connect, because in case you don’t know, depending on where you book a trip from, it will be less expensive, for example).
• They have a customer service team available 24/7.
• NordVPN is one of the few VPN providers that has been audited (three times in this case) to ensure that it operates transparently, without storing user logs and thus guaranteeing complete privacy, without risks.
• They also offer a threat protection service to add an extra layer of security if you need it and browse safely.
• If you want to have different passwords on each site like we recommended but can’t or want to remember them all, they also offer a password management service, called NordPasswhich uses an XChaCha20 encryption algorithm and operates under a zero-knowledge architecture: even they won’t know your passwords.

In addition, during this Christmas they have a promotion where you can save 69% of the price and in addition they offer you 3 months free, with a 30 day money back guarantee in case you want to try it and in the end, that doesn’t convince you. In fact, this is the VPN we use and also the one we recommend.