The year-end shopping begins with Black Friday, 12.12, Christmas and then New Year.
In light of ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, more people are staying out of stores to avoid large crowds in stores and turning to online shopping for the gifts, decorations, food and other holiday-related purchases they need for the holiday season.
A recent retail survey has revealed that Malaysian leads in this region’s online shopping, with almost 22 million shoppers, to shop-hop as many as seven websites before making purchases. By end of 2021, nine of out of 10 Malaysians are expected to shop online. Interestingly, the survey also shared that 63% do not know what they want to buy when they set out to browse.
Malaysia is seeing most states progressing in the National Recovery Plan from phase two to three in the third quarter (Q3) ended Sept 30, 2021. More states have since moved into phase four of NRP, and ahead of the festive seasons, many people are expected to flock both physical and online stores as well as start seeing and booking trips online, too.
Such activities also open opportunities for cybercriminals who are out to take advantage of unsuspecting shoppers.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) showed Malaysia was on the top 10 targets of malicious mailings in Q3 this year. KSN also reported that Kaspersky’s solutions blocked more than 5.6 million redirects to phishing pages.
Chris Connell, managing director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky said the pandemic has triggered more people to seek the safety and convenience of contactless options by embracing online shopping.
“Although physical safety is essential, the safety of our finances, devices and information is also important, especially as phishing scams become more and more sophisticated and targeted.
“We expect cybercriminals to continue using tricks that will lure more victims to take the bait hence this festive season, we urge everyone to put their guards up against messages, calls, and even emails asking for critical information such as account number, OTPs and passwords,” he said.
Before everyone starts the year-end frenzy, Kaspersky has the following useful tips for safe shopping online:
- Be wary of deals that seem too good to be true, they usually are scammers.
- Type the URL into your browser to check the deal on the website rather than clicking on links in emails
- Look out for padlock sign or HTTPS in the address bar when paying. Keep in mind that this padlock means safety only if the website address is correct, so check twice
- Use a credit card rather than a debit card for extra payment protection
- Avoid saving your card details to a website
- Protect devices used for shopping with the best security solution and make sure patches and updates are applied as soon as possible
- Use a unique, complex password for each of your online accounts
