KANSAS CITY, Mo. – If you prefer cyber-shopping to battling crowds on Back Fiday, you’ve got company. According to the National Retail Federation, the average shopper plans to do about 36 percent of their holiday shopping online. That means the bad guys are out there too, waiting to steal your information.
We spoke with retired F.B.I. agent, Jeff Lanza, who had some tips you may have never heard of before.
For example, do you shop with your debit card? According to Lanza, that’s the wrong move. He says if a thief gets a hold of your debit card information, it leads them straight to your bank account. They’ll drain your account, and often times you’re going to have a hard time getting that cash back.
“Debit card fraud on the other hand is much harder to get your money back. Your money’s already out of the bank, and you have to try to retrieve it,” says Lanza.
“I don’t have a whole lot to lose. People would be doing a whole lot of work for nothing,” says Matt Moores, an online shopper.
Make sure you’re on a trusted site. One way to be positive the site is a secure one, make sure there’s an “S” after the HTTP. Shop on a private Wifi signal, not out at a coffee shop where your information can easily be accessed by everyone on the public signal.
