Golden rules to keep in mind for Black Friday shopping!

Black Friday, eagerly awaited by consumers looking to catch discounted shopping opportunities, begins today, November 29.

Immediately following the discount days, which will last for one week, Cyber Monday discounts covering technology products will begin on December 2.

Stating that citizens who want to take advantage of the discounts and campaigns during this busy period should be careful against fraud, TOBB E-commerce Council Member and Ticimax E-commerce Systems Founding CEO Cenk Çiğdemli warned against discount and campaign offers that are too good to be true, saying, “During discount periods, cyber gangs try to trap consumers by creating fake, front e-commerce sites.”

Çiğdemli began his warnings as follows:

“During discount periods, cyber gangs try to trap consumers by creating fake, front e-commerce sites. Citizens should be careful when shopping online on this special day. In particular, one should not believe in promises of discounts that are too good to be true. Temporary front sites are opened for special periods, and citizens are lured into these sites with campaign promises and trapped. Citizens should keep their eyes open against very, very attractive discounts and campaigns. In addition, fake cargo tracking messages are also one of the prominent fraud methods. They send messages to citizens by imitating famous e-commerce sites or delivery companies. Clicking on the links in these messages or performing transactions on these sites can lead to the theft of credit card information. The web addresses of the websites entered via links must definitely be checked.”

Also warning against social engineering fraud, Çiğdemli stated, “Remember that legal institutions never ask their users for their username and password information. Citizens should be careful when shopping so that the month of discounts does not turn into a month of trouble.”

WHAT SHOULD YOU PAY ATTENTION TO?

Çiğdemli conveyed what needs to be paid attention to as follows:

“When shopping online, it is necessary to check several times whether the website is real. The site's contact information and SSL Certificate must definitely be checked. Whether there is an SSL certificate can be understood by the lock icon located in the left corner of the address bar when entering the site. The absence of a lock icon means that the site may not be reliable, even if there is no intention of fraud. The site's address, company, and phone information should also be checked. The fact that the site works with a solid infrastructure provider also shows that it is reliable. If written, the infrastructure provider company name at the bottom of the site can be checked. Also, for whatever reason, credit card information should not be given to anyone over the phone or via message. If shopping will be done via social media, either the cash-on-delivery option should be preferred or a virtual card should be used. The price of the product on other sites must also be checked. If there is an unbelievably large discount, one should leave that site immediately.”

RULES TO FOLLOW WHILE SHOPPING

Çiğdemli shared the following tips to avoid being a target of cyberattacks and to shop safely while shopping online:

-Shop with your own devices. Whether it is your computer, tablet, or smartphone, use your own device for shopping. It will be much easier for you to distinguish oddities in the device's behavior.

-Try not to shop from public Wi-Fi spots. Not every internet connection is secure enough for online payments. Do not use public Wi-Fi spots in bazaars and shopping malls for online shopping.

-Use a credit card or virtual credit card. Purchases made using a credit card are safer as they do not cover the money you keep in your demand deposit or savings accounts. In fact, if you use a virtual credit card with a limited limit, you will minimize the risk.

-Keep your security software up to date. If you haven't already, install a reliable and up-to-date internet security solution with multiple layers of protection.

-Always check the online address bar. Do not let your guard down even when you see a well-known site. Fraudsters can create fake websites that are almost identical to their original counterparts. Keep your eyes on the URL, that is, the address bar. Fake sites can be easily detected because they use different internet addresses than the official sites they are trying to imitate.

-Check your statements after shopping. Checking bank and credit card account balances is always good, especially after periods when shopping is more intense than usual.