Historically, 40 percent of online fraud occurs in the last three months of the year, but experts predict that figure could be even higher this year. According to an estimate from Forrester Research, online holiday sales in the U.S. are expected to be at their highest ever, an estimated $95 billion.
Historically, 40 percent of online fraud occurs in the last three months of the year, but experts predict that figure could be even higher this year. According to an estimate from Forrester Research, online holiday sales in the U.S. are expected to be at their highest ever, an estimated $95 billion. With so much credit card and personal information online this time of year, along with the new chip technology now making it harder to steal in-store data, this holiday season shows signs of attracting more online fraud being delivered in increasingly clever ways. There are a number of practices you can do help protect you from these online threats if you know what to look for.
Threat: Fake apps with malware
CNETreports that over the Thanksgiving weekend,Zscaler, an Internet security firm, uncovered a malware campaign encouraging people to download fake apps offering early access to Amazon.com Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers and deals. When the fake Amazon app is installed, it loads another child app that asks for administrative privileges and other risky permissions like sending SMS and dialing phone numbers. Even if you recognize the app as bogus after you download it and you think you have deleted it, the child app will continue to run in the background collecting personal data from your phone.
You can protect yourself from this threat by making it a practice to only download apps from legitimate app stores and websites. Be aware of the permissions asked by the application during installation. Shopping apps should not ask for access to your contacts or SMS.