Online shopping is quick and convenient for holiday shoppers, but it opens consumers up to fraud.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection reports 57% of consumers do their holiday shopping online, and Director Michelle Reinen says preventing scams starts with a “clean machine…”
“Keep your device and your applications up-to-date. Make sure you have the latest patches and software updates loaded so you’re on as secure of a system as possible...”
Reinen says consumers shouldn’t click links from forwarded emails, classified ads or social media posts…
“If you’re using some of those, we’ve seen scams where you end up downloading malware or end up having to give over personal information in order to get into the site again and your back to that identity theft potential or another worst case scenario like identity theft is someone is monitoring your machine and you don’t even know it.”
Reinen says print and save records of online transactions and item descriptions, and to carefully review credit card statements after the holidays for unauthorized charges.
Visit datcp.wi.gov for more information.
