DON’T let Black Friday turn into ‘black fraud-day’, the National Police have warned, highlighting the dangers of bogus offers on social media for goods that do not exist and malicious websites that imitate genuine retailers.
Experts from the force’s central cyber crime unit say social networks have become fertile ground for cyber criminals, who take advantages of events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when online purchases and transfers rise sharply, to try and con potential victims.
To avoid fraudulent charges, identity theft, being redirected to a fake website or resending masses of fake offers to your contacts, amongst many other swindles, the police issued the following tips. Beware of free gifts in exchange for ‘liking’ a post, resending it to contacts or completing a survey, and make sure offers are from the official brand they advertise before
clicking on a link or downloading any files.
If you have made purchases, you may receive messages from delivery companies, but check the sender is authentic as links could lead to your device’s files being encrypted and held to ransom.
Carefully check website addresses on offers, as malicious pages often have very similar domain names to legitimate ones with only one different letter. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, they note.
Full report in Friday’s Costa Blanca News
