Shopping online in festive season? Follow these steps to prevent internet fraud

Online shopping is a big-time trend and people love to shop online. Your impulsive acts are motivated by festive buying traditions, retailers announcing yearly festive bargains, and steep discounts. Scammers may imitate your favourite online retailer and invite you to visit their website for attractive deals to take advantage of your enthusiasm. Others may send you phishing emails with lucrative offers.

 A few recommendations to help you avoid falling victim to online scams this festive season:

1. Consider what you click:

It could be phishing, hacking, cyber fraud, or identity theft whenever you receive a mail, text, notification, or a forward link that seems suspect and occasionally promises festive offers/free presents, etc. There can be a theft attempt. Cheat. During the holiday season, when online retailers offer unbelievable discounts and huge cashback, you must exercise caution. It is better to confirm the website's and the seller's information.

Scroll over the URL and look at its Security Status (HTTPS) to be safe. Your first line of protection should be to avoid clicking on suspicious links, but if you believe a link is legitimate and safe with HTTPS, you can still protect your online session by typing the entire URL yourself rather than clicking on a direct link. 

2. Maintain a separate bank account:

People rely on their main account's lifetime savings. Many people rely on this account for all of their daily transactions, including shopping and buying food and beverages. This increases the risk of internet fraud attempts on your lifetime savings. These scammers can empty your primary account of all savings. To protect your savings, it is usually preferable to utilise a different account for daily transactions.

3. Before making a purchase, confirm the UPI ID or QR Code:

Online payments have indeed become indispensable to everyone. It only takes a quick scan or clicks to transact money. Despite how simple and convenient payment has become, they still have some reservations. Nowadays, con artists can simply defraud people by scanning QR codes in unexpected locations, posing as a friend and asking for financial assistance, or providing enormous discounts as part of holiday preparations. Another important point to keep in mind is that only by scanning a QR code can the money be taken out of a person's account; there is no other way to do so.

4. Monitor Your Expenses:

Even while it sounds easy, tracking your everyday expenditures throughout the festive season can be difficult, especially with all the online shopping, food delivery, gift-giving, etc. It will be challenging to track and evaluate your expenses for any unknown or unauthorised transactions if all of these transactions are made from your primary bank account. Separating your primary savings account from your daily transaction account is the greatest strategy to clear out a congested transaction list. You can distinguish between large and little ticket purchases by setting aside a small amount in your digital account to keep track of your daily financial activities. This will keep your transaction lists organised and simple to navigate.