A quarter of adults surveyed by Norton had been targeted by a scam during a previous holiday season. (File image) Photo: 123RF
Halloween may be over but the tricks are just beginning.
With eight weekends before Christmas, online safety experts say the start of the holiday shopping season sees a 53 percent rise in online scams, and they are warning consumers to be on their guard.
Cyber safety company Norton's survey of 1000 New Zealand adults found a quarter had been targeted by a scam in a previous holiday season.
Eighty-three percent of them suffered financial losses, at an average of $1356 - but in extreme cases, reported losses were as high as $50,000.
Norton senior systems engineer Dean Williams said this year, there was particular pressure on consumers "to fill those Santa socks" with the cost of living crisis making shoppers less risk averse.
The survey found that while 71 percent were concerned about personal details being compromised, two in five people were happy to give their phone number and email for a discount of 25 percent or less.
"They're looking even further online for better deals, better prices and, potentially, overlook the red flags and engage with those suspicious deals.
"All of these pressures, the scammers know this and they know that this is the time of year to to rejuvenate their scams."
Williams said the cost of living crisis had also made consumers more vulnerable to scammers, as they handed over personal information for discounts.
Scamming was all about trickery and psychology, he said.
"All they're trying to do is leverage our emotions. They're trying to trick us into something that we need to buy now, before it's too late, or a price that's too good to be true."
The start of the Christmas shopping season saw a 53 percent rise in online scams, he added.
"They include what we call phishing, such as fake websites too good to be true, a lot of delivery notifications, whether it be via e-mail or via text message. So we need to be very wary of any unsolicited communication that we get now.
"On websites, we're seeing an increase of what we call malvertising, where they inject [fake] advertising malware onto websites."
He recommended that people take some precautions.
"First we need to avoid unfamiliar websites, so if it's a new ecommerce site we're not familiar with, [perhaps] with a range of products that are too good to be true as well. If we've got any one-to-one communication, so via email with embedded links, avoid any unverified links.
"If you are going to purchase online, use secure payment methods like PayPal, that can be a proxy between you and the seller to preserve your your payments and personal information. Use unique passwords on your ecommerce sites, and avoid saving any payment information on those websites and make sure the devices that we're using are protected with comprehensive security solutions."
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