Think Before You Click Before You Buy Online!

As we move towards the festive season, we are reminded that not all Santa Clauses are as honest as we would hope.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre reported that 28,049 victims lost a total of £15.4M to online shopping fraud during last year’s festive shopping season.

But why do you think this is still happening?

We are reminded every day to be aware of online scams, and in the run up to Christmas these warnings will quite rightly increase. Despite these warnings there are people that are unfortunate enough to still fall victim of some form of online scam.

This is not about #blame as it can easily happen to any of us at any time; it is about creating a learning culture with one and other. Scams are becoming more and more sophisticated, and it is easy to fall victim. But are there additional impacting factors, which if taken into consideration could help improve our own ability to #prevent becoming another victim of online scams?

Is it self-efficacy – despite ‘online living’, including shopping, becoming commonplace, people don’t feel they have the ability, the skills or knowledge to prevent being scammed. (Alternatively, they overrate their ability to prevent a successful scam). Nevertheless, they continue shop online in the hope they are not scammed.

Is it dependency on technology – Online shoppers depend solely on technology to keep them safe and don’t understand the need for them to remain vigilant?

Is it scarcity – the lack of availability of a product or service causes people to make that rush purchase? This is particularly relevant at the moment!

Is it greed – we want, but don’t necessarily need a particular item or product, but a ‘deal’ online is too good to be missed?

Is it because people don’t care – Who is going to scam me?

There are many reasons people are unfortunate enough to be scammed online. It would be good to have your thoughts on this, so please comment below. Whatever the reason may be, one simple piece of advice is to remember to think before you click before you buy online!