Julie Helen: 'I very nearly got caught...a lot of the sites can look very sophisticated'

Now that November has rolled around, we can face into the festive season and there is one thing really on my mind before it even starts.

I buy a lot of things online, particularly in the last few years. Having items delivered directly to my door makes shopping so easy

I especially find buying bigger and bulkier things so much handier when they just land on my doorstep. Most of the delivery people I encounter are very helpful and will even put my items somewhere they are easy to reach when they visit me.

As the buying will ramp up in the coming weeks, I’m afraid of all the elaborate scams that come across all my digital devices.

I am always looking for things to make life a bit easier or the nice things that I might enjoy, but so much of what I see is just too good to be true, and sometimes the copying of legitimate branding and photographs hoodwinks me into clicking on things I never should.

I learned how bad it can get when a local clothing business I follow put up a warning to say customers were telling them they were getting ads showing their products for much cheaper prices. The owner was distraught. She had spent a lot of money on her designs and photoshoots and now she is terrified her good and loyal customer base will get caught ordering and paying for goods that will never arrive. Then, when disgruntled customers go back to try and get their money reimbursed, the fake website will have disappeared.

I very nearly got caught recently. A lot of the sites can look very sophisticated and almost identical to very reputable ones. The lesson is, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. The real solution is to only use sites we have ordered from before, and stick to them religiously.

Many of us are signed up to mailing lists for different stores. especially when they offer discounts through signing up to newsletters the first time we order from a website.

It is important that when we get those emails, we don’t click on the links. Many of those emails can contain bots or ways to redirect our details to bogus, made up, cloned sites.

If a store has a genuine offer, they will have it on their website as well as where you see it on the newsletter. We need to check and double check.

I am sick to the teeth of scam text messages. I get up to about three a day. not to mind the scam calls with robotic voices on the other end. Most of the time I’ll be wise to them, but when I’ve been tired or expecting a package I have had a few near misses. I must make myself stop and think, every single time.

When it comes to calls, I have a message on my voicemail for when new people call, asking them to send me a text after the call explaining who they are. Then I can call them back and save their number for later too.

I have hung up the phone on well-meaning delivery men thinking they were part of a scam. When we eventually get hold of each other, they always completely understand my actions. This tells me, good people understand how we need to protect ourselves from scams so if you are uncertain, don’t click, and don’t answer. The real people will find you when they need to.

Good luck out there, think twice, click once.