The Garda has published an advice, warning the public on online shopping fraud. According to the data from Banking and Payment Federation Ireland (BPFI), people have lost almost €22 million from their credit and debit cards in 2020. 10 million online transactions were carried out during the Christmas shopping period.
In the year 2019-2020, there had been 50% increase in crimes reported. The consumer understands that they have been cheated when they received fake or counterfeit goods for the material they ordered. Many people have paid the money through online sites and thus online shopping fraud happens. The Covid 19 period has been utilised very well as many people rely on e-commerce websites.
Garda National Economic Crime Bureau advices people that;
- Use secure websites and make sure that the website you enter is not cloned or fake. The ‘https’ and a padlock symbol indicates the site is safe.
- Trust seals must be verified which is commonly placed on homepages, login pages etc.
- Read the policies and conditions on consumer rights.
- Always keep a record of the purchases made. Receipt should be saved in your device.
- Don’t use public network connections, use your private wifi or mobile data.
- Don’t believe messages with a sense of urgency, i.e last chance, only one left etc.
- Beware of the sites that reach you through social media.
- Don’t believe the sites which has poor spelling and grammar in their description.
- Don’t sent confidential information via e-mails.
- Make sure that the seller is genuine. If you have a physical address, verify it.
- Be careful while doing direct banking transactions.