Marketers found as the Internet grew in popularity that the first Monday after what had been coined as 'Black Friday', there was a large increase in sales. The day was termed "Cyber Monday".
A consumer advocate for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Affairs, Sandy Chalmers, says this is prime time for cyber crooks. She says they tend to be very aggressive and creative this time of the year because they know consumers are in a buying mood.....
"....so some of the things, the techniques they use are fake websites, social media posts that may offer a hot gift item at a "too good to be true" price, they may offer free gift cards, so be very skeptical when you are online...."
Chalmers says make sure the website is legit before you give personal information.
Fake gift cards and phony websites are possible problems you could also encounter as you shop online.
Chalmers says the growing popularity of gift cards makes many consumers a target...
".....and there are fraudulent websites selling gift cards, or rather, pretending to sell gift cards. Anytime you see a price that seems too good to be true, you probably want to back out of the transaction and go somewhere else...."
Chalmers says be certain of the legitimacy of the website even if it isn't offering gift cards, as a wide variety of ripoffs have been coming into the marketplace. She says this is prime time for all types of cyber crooks and "Cyber Monday" could be a place where identity theft and other types of theft could leave you in a bad place.
