Black Friday – SA’s most anticipated discount frenzy – is coming up, and for many employees now working from home, it may be their first Black Friday online shopping experience.
“Because COVID-19 has raised fears of crowded shops and many organisations have equipped their employees to work from home, this year is likely to see a surge of first-time online shoppers,” says TRG MD Marc Seymour. At the same time, cyber criminals are getting set to enjoy one of the biggest paydays of the year.
“VPNs and anti-virus on work devices are not enough to protect these employees from being defrauded this Black Friday,” he says. “As always, humans are the weakest link in security, and now would be a good time to raise employee awareness of the risks they face when shopping online during the Black Friday sales.”
Seymour recommends ensuring that anti-virus and patches are up to date on corporate devices; and warning staff to ensure their personal devices are similarly secure.
“Staff should also be reminded of the risks of phishing, and alerted to how domain spoofing is carried out,” he says.
TRG suggests staff are also advised on standard security measures such as:
- Don’t give out details such as banking details, PINs, passwords or your ID number in response to a phone call or e-mail. If a caller claims to be from your bank and needs this information, call your bank yourself, and get put through to the agent who called you.
- When shopping online, stick to trusted, reputable stores. It is easy for criminals to create fake retail sites that look exactly like the legitimate stores. Don’t click on links to stores from social media posts or e-mails, rather go directly to the retailer’s site.
- Look for a padlock symbol in the address bar and ensure the URL starts with https, not just http – this indicates your connection to the site is secure.
- Watch out for gift card and reward scams sent via e-mail. Legitimate digital vouchers and discount codes should be in the body of your email, and should not need to be downloaded as an attachment. In many cases, viruses are embedded in attachments and downloading them will infect your device.
- Any sale item that tries to rush you into purchasing should be treated with suspicion.
- Don’t transact on public WiFi, as fraudsters can compromise public hotspots and intercept your traffic. Rather buy your own data and stay safe.
- Fraudsters love WhatsApp and Facebook messenger to circulate money off vouchers; be mindful of these as there may be many more than normal on Black Friday.
Some Black Friday scams are simply good old-fashioned con artistry taken online. To avoid these:
- Do your homework ahead of time. Make a shopping list, compare prices, and if you spot offers from a store you don’t know, thoroughly check whether they really exist, how long they have been in business for, and what other customers have to say about them on social media and consumer complaint sites.
- Be extra cautious about paying money to a trader you found on social media or online classifieds. Meet the seller in a safe place, see the product they advertised, then hand over the cash if you’re satisfied with it. Don’t pay ‘holding deposits’ for big ticket items.
- This is also the time of year when scammers advertise discounted holiday deals at accommodation that is not theirs to offer for rent. Be very cautious about who you book accommodation with, particularly if they urge you to reserve the offer in a hurry.
As always, if you are in any doubt, chat to your IT team. If you need a partner in the security space, we offer a range of security tools and services.
TRG provides compliance level cyber security solutions. Don’t allow your organisation to be at risk of a cyber attack, which could damage both your reputation and growth. Let TRG Sentry ease the challenge of facing the ever-changing threat landscape. Discover its range of specialist security solutions and services to reduce the burden and enhance your organisation’s cyber resilience.
Log on to TRG's Web site www.trg-sentry.co.za or contact sales@trg.co.za.
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