Editorial

Scammers follow holiday shopping money to mobile

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Not that many years ago, ordering Christmas presents over the Internet was a novel idea.

This year, shoppers spent $4.45 billion online on Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day, according to information released by the Adobe software company.

And it wasn't all done by "traditional" desktop computers.

Over those two days, one-third of online shoppers used mobile phones to make purchases, 22 percent of them on smart-phones, up 70 percent from last year.

You know what's next: the crooks are following the money.

One of the latest is a free ringtone app which, while delivering those holiday ringtones, secretly opens up your phone to hackers who can see every phone number you dial, every picture and email and even video of you and your surroundings.

Another scam is "click-jacking," which is an image or icon on a website which when you click on it, actually forces you to click on something else.

Still others include QR codes which, when scanned, take you to a scammer's site instead of a legitimate businesses.

Crooks also know how to game search results so their fraudulent sites come up first. Other scams have ominous names like digital profiling, forced browsing, drive-by download and WiFi sniffing -- don't trust free WiFi sites with banking or other sensitive personal information.

Mobile security tips are about the same as online desktop recommendations: change your passwords or consider using a password manager to make your accounts more secure; use a single credit card to make things easier to resolve in case of errors or fraud, and install trusted security software on your phone the same way you would on a desktop or laptop computer, be aware of your surroundings online and in the real world, be skeptical of charity appeals and deals that seem too good to be true.

Better yet, shop at your neighborhood small business and hand them cash for your Christmas gifts.

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