It's that time of year again. November 20, which is often called "Black Friday" in the retail business, has come and gone. Hackers are now in full swing, trying to get us to give them our money and personal information in exchange for empty promises. Black Friday, which is the start of the holiday shopping season, is also the beginning of the busiest time for hackers. This year, web-based malware is the biggest worry of tech experts.
In marketing terms, Cyber Monday comes after Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving. Both are big days for stores and people who try to steal money online. People should be wary of emails that offer deals that seem too good to be true.
Emails that look like they are from Ebay, Amazon, or other specialist e-tailers hide the real website addresses that you are sent to by clicking on links. Another trick is to send a lot of emails (called a "blast") to people who don't know you, advertising a hot product for a much lower price than normal stores. We think that this year's hottest items will be electronics like the Nintendo Wii and maybe even the Amazon Kindle, both of which look like they will sell out quickly.
Reports say that the amount of money lost to fraud in e-commerce this year will be more than $3.5 billion. This is mostly because more people are going online and looking for good deals on the web. It's also important to remember that websites at the top of Google, Yahoo, or MSN may not be the safest ones. People often use tricks to get to the top of search results, and search engines don't check websites to make sure they're real. In other words, buyer beware. Don't buy from a website that doesn't have a phone number or a real trading address.
