Online shopping? Beware!!
Have you bought anything online recently?…
Almost 34% of all retail sales during May 2020 were carried out online.
New research suggests that only 16% of UK consumers intend to return to their old shopping habits post-lockdown.
Online shopping fraud during lockdown
Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime, received over 16,000 reports relating to online shopping and auction fraud during the lockdown, with losses totalling over £16m.
Members of the public have reported buying mobile phones (19%), vehicles (22%), electronics (10%) such as games consoles, AirPods and MacBooks , and footwear (4%) on sites such as eBay (18%), Facebook (18%), Gumtree (10%) and Depop (6%), only to have the items never arrive.
We all make mistakes and these days the scams can be incredibly convincing. If you think you’ve visited, or made a purchase on, a bogus website, you should:
- first, take a note of the website’s address
- close down your internet browser.
- report the details to Action Fraud and contact your bank to seek advice.
Whether you’ve been a victim of fraud will depend on how much information you’ve provided to the website, so keep an eye on your bank transactions. Contact your bank immediately about anything that you don’t recognise, even small amounts.
For more information about how to stay safe online, please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk/cybercrime
Stay safe.
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