Holiday shopping is in full swing and 'tis the season for holiday scams. In this TNTV Alert, sales director, Chris Montgomery provides tips to know if the retailer you are shopping is legitimate. Be sure to double-check retail sites to make sure you don't fall victim to holiday cybercrime.  

Video Transcript

My name is Chris Montgomery and welcome to this TN Alert. Tis the season again, Christmas is upon us and along with it, online shopping and the potential for being scammed. So what can you do to ensure your able to get something for everyone on your nice list without being compromised by someone on the naughty list? Here's how to make sure the Retailer's legitimate before you make a purchase. Check out online reviews by searching the BBB website for negative reports or complaints about the online retailer just be aware that some are foreign based, so a search might not yield anything. You can also search the domain name with a quick Whois search. Look for how long ago the site was registered, and perhaps consider an unknown merchant that has a more recently registered site as being more or less suspect. Do a Google search to see what reviews or news stories, good or bad, turn up about the retailer. Keep in mind that positive reviews can be easily faked and a lot of negative reviews should be a red flag. Another thing you can do is look for clues on the website such as scrolling down to the bottom of the site and look for the about us or contact us section. Most legitimate sites will show a physical address and a phone number. Plug the physical address you find in Google maps to make sure the location looks like some place a legit business might operate as opposed to someone's house. Call the phone number to see whether someone answers or do a reverse phone lookup. Another thing you can do is examine the writing and the URL by taking a close look at how the website is written starting with the URL and onto the product and customer service pages. The URL is Important because in a version of online shopping scams fraudsters sometimes create facsimiles of familiar websites. Look closely to make sure the business name is correctly spelled and if there aren't any extraneous characters. The URL shouldn't be overly long or complicated. For example, if you're shopping on Amazon, the URL should read amazon.com not Amason.com with an S and not amazon.com/payments/toys/holiday shopping. Finally look for seals of approval the retail sites home screen might display a seal of approval from organizations that vouch for the Retailer's reputation or responsible data collection practices. Such as the Better Business Bureau seal, the TRUSTe certified seal or the Norton secured seal. Of course logos can be faked meaning that isn't a Flawless guarantee, but at least it's a positive sign if the retail site has some seal of approval from reputable organization. In closing and when making a purchase always make sure there's a padlock symbol that is used to indicate that a site securely protects your payment information, as something scammers have been known to copy. Trust it only if it appears in the same field as the URL which should begin with https, which stands for hypertext transfer protocol secure with the S standing for secure. Thank you for joining me today on this TN Alert. If you would like more information on how ThrottleNet can help you and your business, please reach out to us today at 866-829-5557 or visit us online ThrottleNet.com

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