It’s that time of year again with the holiday shopping season’s official “kickoff” upon us, the day after Thanksgiving, appropriately dubbed “Black Friday”. And while Black Friday is generally known as the day shoppers migrate in hordes to stores in person with credit cards flashing, this shopping frenzy is closely followed by Cyber Monday, the online equivalent of Black Friday.

I was watching my local news yesterday and a feature came on warning viewers of “a greater incidence of identity theft due to scammers taking advantage of the holiday season”.  According to the National Retail Federation, in 2007 it was estimated that 72 million people shopped online on Cyber Monday, giving identity thieves a noticeably larger pool of victims to choose from. In fact, the period from October through January usually sees a significant increase in identity theft complaints, both online and in the real world.

But should you do anything different as far as your shopping procedures on either of these holiday shopping extravaganza days? The answer is, not really; you should be using the same precautions for avoiding identity theft at all times of the year. But it doesn’t hurt to be reminded! Here is a list of things you can do to make your online shopping experience as safe as possible:

• Do business on sites that you know and trust only. Make sure it is a secure site! A secure site will have “https://” in the address file. And look for the padlock on the bottom of your screen: this indicates an SSL VPN connection, which keeps your information secure when it’s sent online.
• Do your shopping from your own computer, preferably from home. Using public computers such as at a library or airport kiosk may expose you to spyware or other information recording devices that can obtain financial information.
• Guard passwords and make them unique. Always mix letters and numbers, use at least 7 characters, change them frequently, and try not to use words from the dictionary. It makes them harder to remember but less likely that it can be figured out by hacker password programs. Don’t carry them in your wallet or “post-it” on your computer!
• Make sure your anti-virus and other software is up to date. Don’t ignore those annoying pop-up windows that keep asking you “update now?” for browser, virus protection and other programs…
• Watch out for Cyber Monday-themed “phishing” e-mails where crooks send you emails that appear to be coming from legitimate sites and send consumers to lookalike pages designed to gather personal information and steal passwords: steer clear of links embedded in spam messages. Instead, type in the vendor’s Web address manually into your browser and visit the site directly if you’re looking to purchase something online. Read this article for a bunch of tips on identifying phishing emails!
• Use a disposable or one-time use credit card. These cards are put out by companies like Visa and American Express and can help reduce your risk of credit card fraud and identity theft.

In 2007,  the FTC estimated that consumers lost more than  $1.2 billion from identity theft and fraud. With consumers already facing unprecedented economic challenges, it is prudent advice to be particularly wary this holiday season of scams and fraud both at stores and in the online world of shopping.

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