ATLANTA — The Black Friday sales have already started in most cases. And there are warnings as you grab your phone or computer to make a purchase, according to WSBTV.
The shopping has already started for some. “I did a lot of shopping online this year,” said shopper Ridge Austin.
And for others, they are just gearing up. “I’ll probably do most of my black Friday shopping online,” said Madison Page.
There are warnings for those who turn to online shopping.
“The three things I’ll talk about is reputable retailers, being smart about your emails unsolicited emails and such, and using a credit card as compared to a debit card,” said Cybersecurity Expert Anthony Perry.
We talked to two cyber security experts who warn especially about the links you click on that you see in social media adds, and those that pop up in your email or text messages from retailers, even banks.
“Take the few extra seconds to manually type in the website itself,” said Kennesaw State Assistant Professor and Cybersecurity researcher Adam Green. “Almost without fail those are phishing attacks via SMS. To be sure that you are not being phished- but please do not disregard especially he bank messages, they could be legitimate- but you want you want confirm that by not clicking on the link in the SMS message. You want to go directly to your bank.”
That advice extends to text messages that help you track shipments.
“Instead of relying on the link in the SMS, in the text message go back to your source documentation,” said Green. “Just copy that tracking number and paste it directly into that shipping company’s website.”
And they warn, criminals have found an assistant in AI.
“The usual tells that we would rely on poor grammar, misspelled words, and sentences that did not make sense: those are becoming less and less frequent. Now with the advent of AI, I can go to any number of AI websites and craft a message that is written in perfect English ,” said Green.