You could fall victim to fraud, scams and identity theft.
Whether your shopping from home, your phone or on your laptop buyer beware.
"Its definitely a big problem and we see scammers trying to trick those people out of their money," said Beau Monday, Information Security Officer.
Beau who works in IT at Hawaiian Telcom says they have seen a significant increase in Hawaii residents being targeted by scam artists.
"We are seeing a lot of fake tech support calls," added Monday. "Also we are seeing a spike in SMS where people will get a message on their cell phone that says that they won a gift card for $500-1000 gift card at some popular merchant."
Issues like these can scare people off the computer and into the store to do their shopping.
"I am not comfortable with online shopping," added Reina Nahulu, Nanakuli resident. "I don’t feel comfortable giving my debit or any credit card information online."
While others prefer the convenience and the increase in options.
"Online. bigger selection, less hassle, sometimes you can get more information and some prices can be better, easier to do comparison shopping," said Brad Glosserman, Nuuanu resident.
Let the buyer beware if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
"Looks for sites that have spelling errors, sites that don’t look professionally done, watch out for sites that are hosted outside the United States," said Monday.
And look out for public networks.
"While you are shopping in the coffee shop the guy sitting next to you drinking his café mocha could actually be recording your entire transaction, and using it later to either impersonate you or steal your credit card," said Monday.
Always be aware of the website you are using, make sure it’s a trusted major site with https on the address bar and never use a debit card to make online purchases.
"Cause if you have fraud on your debit card that is money that’s just missing out of your checking account," Monday added.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
