10 Tips for Safe Online Shopping

Sale Alert? Beware!

Nothing grabs anyone's attention more than the four-letter word, "SALE."

It used to be that Filipinos had to wait for yearly mega sale events to get the best price for that shirt or kitchen tool they've long been wanting to buy. With frequent seasonal sale events that take place these days through digital platforms, customers would always find a reason to shop for everything from gadgets to groceries to plants.

But when there's an online activity, cybercriminals will not be far behind.

Phishing remains an effective way to lure online shoppers into handing over their personal data and financial information to cybercriminals. Well-known brands in the retail and banking sectors are most often used as bait.

One common tactic that hackers use is sending out mass amounts of fake promotional materials disguised as legitimate messages from retailers through email or social network sites. Once you click on the link to view a seemingly too-good-to-be-true offer, you will be redirected to a malicious site instead of the retailer. This will put your device and financial information at risk while the malicious link will spread itself to all your friends to victimize them, too.

In 2021, Kaspersky products detected more than 40 million phishing attacks globally targeting e-commerce, e-shopping platforms and banking institutions. The introduction of more e-payment systems and its popularity among customers for unmatched convenience also attracted cyber criminals that financial phishing attempts targeting e-payment systems more than doubled last year — an increase of 208%.

However, data from Kaspersky showed last year that the Philippines experienced a 38.31% decrease in the number of users exposed to phishing attempts compared in 2020 at 16.05%.