Cyber Monday: Protect Ya Neck

As more retailers continue to push their holiday sales to Cyber Monday to avoid big competitors like Best Buy and WalMart, more consumers are rushing to those online exclusive deals offered by smaller retailers to avoid the lines and chaos in big retail stores on Black Friday. But, where there’s an increase in online traffic and financial transactions, there are scammers and hackers waiting for anxious consumers to click on the irresistible price reductions.

To protect this year’s Cyber Monday shoppers, Trend Micro shared a list of ways cybercrime steals disguise themselves as holiday deals. Here are a few examples of holiday deals compared to cybercrime steals:

Holiday deals	Cybercrime steals
Merchant gift cards	Online gift cards offered from an unknown e-tailer, an unsecure URL or individuals reselling online
$100 off this season's hottest electronics	$100 for this season's hottest laptop or LED TV - If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam
Donating to a charity through a secure site	Fraudulent charities commonly enlist unsuspicious people, products or pamphlets to impel generosity…and money
E-cards from friends and family	E-cards pretending to be from companies like UPS or Fedex with links to package tracking information
$10 gift for a friend	A $10 fraudulent charge to your bank account, small enough to go unnoticed