This year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping event could be the biggest yet with UK consumers predicted to spend more than £4billion.
That makes it more important than ever that consumers are aware of their rights when shopping online, and about the steps they can take to protect themselves.
Trading Standards are urging consumers to follow their ten Internet shopping tips:
We all know that the 'earn money online' market is full of scammers and awash with bullsh*t, but there are a few legitimate ways to earn a few quid online in your spare time.
One of the more popular ways to do this is by completing online surveys, and there are a large number of websites you can find that offer this opportunity.
Sadly, this sector is quite definitely not immune to scammers, and you need to be careful which sites you sign up to.
Every day, millions upon millions of scam emails are sent using 'botnets' of computers that have been taken over by criminals, thanks to their owners unwittingly installing viruses and other malware.
Scammers have a wide range of tricks that they employ to try and part unsuspecting internet users from their hard-earned cash and/or personal details.
Scareware and Ransomware are quite different things (one is certainly more serious than the other), but would you be able to spot the difference and, more importantly, protect yourself from both?
In the wake of the third cyber-attack this year against the telecoms company TalkTalk - in which the personal details of possibly up to four miillion customers may have been compromised - there have already been reports of scammers targeting those whose data has been stolen.
If someone calls you unexpectedly and tells you that your computer has a virus, put the phone down immediately and report the caller - it's a scam.
The 'your PC has a virus and we can fix it' scam has claimed many victims and can be very serious if you are affected. Victims can lose data, have their computers infected with a virus by the scammer, have their personal data stolen and lose money.
