Black Friday: a single day to take advantage of unbelievable discounts and limited stock.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s appeal is undeniable, but it\u2019s also an opportune time for criminals to take advantage of you.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019ll use anything to con you \u2013 from fake coupons and malicious websites to forged banking emails.<\/p>\n
You need to be careful about who you\u2019re giving your personal information to on November 25, especially over email.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Mimecast<\/a> is sharing the necessary tips you need to shop safely:<\/p>\n Scammers are experts at replicating the look and feel of an official email. The only surefire way to determine the authenticity of an email is to look at the URLs contained within.<\/p>\n he only surefire way to determine the authenticity of an email is to look at the URLs contained within.<\/p>\n So, look for errors. To the untrained eye \u201ctakalot.co.za<\/a>\u201d seems correct, but shouldn\u2019t it be \u201ctakealot.co.za<\/a>\u201d? The wrong URL will often redirect you to a malicious site, created with the sole intent of ripping you off.<\/p>\n The wrong URL will often redirect you to a malicious site, created with the sole intent of ripping you off.<\/p>\n And always check for the green padlock in the URL of any page where a monetary transaction is taking place.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no way around it. Letting your anti-virus software fall behind on updates is guaranteed to get you into trouble.<\/p>\n New threats are added to your anti-virus\u2019 database through updates, without which it has no way of recognising the latest malware or viruses or newly created malicious websites.<\/p>\n All too aware that you\u2019re on the hunt for a good bargain, cyber criminals will email you enticing offers from your favourite websites, hoping to tempt you long enough to drop your guard and click on the links provided.<\/p>\n If you see an offer you like, visit the website the email purports to be from (typing it out yourself rather than following the link in the email), and make sure the deal is real.<\/p>\n The same goes for financial emails. Rather navigate to your bank\u2019s website yourself, and avoid potentially forged emails altogether.<\/p>\n There are any number of resources available online to assist you.<\/p>\n Unfamiliar with the dangers presented by the Internet?<\/p>\n Look for news and blogs about the latest events and techniques cybercriminals use, like spear-phishing, social engineering and ransomware.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t trust a retailer or URL? See what others have to say about it online, or use online tools to scan links and files for threats \u2013 try \u201cscanurl.net<\/a>\u201d or \u201cvirustotal.com<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all allotted up loyalty points over the course of the year \u2013 like eBucks or Greenbacks \u2013 and it\u2019s the perfect time to use them.<\/p>\n Because you\u2019re not dealing with cash directly, or your banking credentials, your bank account is that much more secure.<\/p>\n How many times has your bank told you or advertised on its site that they will never elicit sensitive data over email? We\u2019re willing to bet a lot.<\/p>\n That goes for retailers too. Email is simply not a secure method of transaction, so we suggest you immediately avoid any entity that asks for personal information this way.<\/p>\n Few events will bring an end to celebrations like being a victim of cybercrime, losing personal information, money, and perhaps more.<\/p>\n Thankfully, following these tips will give you the advantage you need to stay one step ahead of cybercrime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Black Friday’s appeal is undeniable, but it\u2019s also an opportune time for criminals to take advantage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":144357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[26,11528],"class_list":["post-144355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-headline","tag-mimecast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144355"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144371,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144355\/revisions\/144371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pay attention to URLs<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Update, update, update<\/strong><\/h3>\n
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Internet is your greatest ally<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Use loyalty points instead<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Stop and think<\/strong><\/h3>\n