Shoppers urged to be cautious during Cyber Monday sales amid scam fears

Eva Osborne

People are being advised to be cautious when online shopping during 'Cyber Monday' on Monday, December 2nd.

Research from FraudSmart has found one in five online shoppers have lost money through scams in the past year. One in 10 of those reported losing as much as €500.

The research also revealed that one in five shoppers do not take basic security precautions when shopping online, including checking for a secure connection (e.g., a ‘https’ and a padlock image at the beginning of the web address) and avoiding the use of public wi-fi for payments.

Eight out of 10 consumers plan to shop online in the run up to Christmas, with only three per cent saying they never shop online.

During this peak online shopping period there is an increased risk to shoppers, with fraudsters primed to take advantage of Cyber Monday and the Christmas rush.

Technology journalist at The Irish Times, Ciara O'Brien, is encouraging people to shop around to ensure discounts are genuine.

"If you see something that looks good, and a lot of people will have been watching things for the last little while, so they'll know the real prices, but if you have your eye on something specific, shop around," she said.

"Don't just see a discount and think: 'That's the best deal I'm going to get'.

"Have a look around and often what you'll find is what's a great cut-price discount on one site is the regular selling price on another. So, you'll find that maybe the deals aren't quite what you thought."