Next to Black Friday, Cyber Monday is one of the biggest shopping days of the holiday season!

Free shipping, deep discounts, and fierce competition among big box stores to get your business has shoppers logging in and placing orders in the hope of making the holidays bright! Oh, and don’t forget fraudsters. They, too, are in competition for your business.

Don’t let fraudsters steal your holiday cheer, and your bank account information, identity, or personal information through fraudulent websites.

Sure, the websites might look legitimate. Of course they have the right logo associated with the company. But do they present the red flags you should be looking for before you enter your payment method, name, address, and phone number?

How to Know If a Website is Legitimate
  • Look for a secure padlock icon in the URL field. The icon indicates that the user is securely connected to the correct site and the information between the user’s web browser and the server is encrypted so that other people, such as hackers, cannot snoop on what information is being sent back and forth.
  • Check if the URL is authenticated. Websites that begin with https:// instead of http:// incorporate encryption to secure data transmission. This encryption ensures that data exchanged between the browser and server is protected from eavesdropping and tampering.
  • Hover over links before you click! Use your mouse to hover over a website link or words that are hyperlinked to view the underlying URL. Even links that are labeled as URLs can send you to another place entirely.
  • Don’t be quick to click. Even popups can send you to malicious sites. While we know that deal won’t last past midnight, we urge you to take every precaution to know you aren’t being scammed.

Knowledge is key! If a Cyber Monday deal asks you to click on malicious email links, install a browser extension in order to “save money”, or prompts you to click on an unsecure link to pay — beware! Scammers have every intention to steal your identity, run up charges on your credit cards, and siphon dollars out of your checking account.

Stay up to date with helpful tips and tricks to stop and prevent fraud with NexTier Bank’s Fraud Center.