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ONLINE SHOPPING IS becoming more popular in Ireland and an increase is expected over the Christmas period.
Over 50% of Irish people shop online and around 30% of people will use their mobile phones as their main shopping tool.
A recent CSO household survey found that 79% of people who made purchases online did not experience any problems, while just 2% reported fraudulent activity.
However, with a 15% increase in online purchases last December and another boost expected this month, consumers are being warned of the possible dangers.
An Garda Síochána launched the SOS (Safe Online Shopping) campaign ahead of the busy Christmas period.
Detective Garda Jim O’Meara of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, said: “We would caution people to protect their personal and financial details online.
If purchasing online only trust your own Wi-Fi networks as opposed to public Wi-Fi where you could be vulnerable to having your payment card details compromised and then sold on the dark web.
“Here, they can be accessed by criminals who go on to use the compromised payment card details either online, over the phone, or even through mail order transactions.”
Golden rules
Last year €41 billion was spent worldwide on credit and debit cards issued in Ireland, €13.2 billion (32%) spent on line.
Sergeant Kelvin Courtney of the Garda Crime Prevention National Centre of Excellence said, “Shopping online is safe so long as we use our credit and debit cards correctly.
We are asking people to take greater precautions when shopping online then they would if purchasing in the shops.
In the first six months of this year there has been €16.6 million gross card fraud.
Detective Superintendent Michael Gubbins, Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, said, “An Garda Síochána and its partners in Europol are actively targeting cybercrimes such as online fraud.
“The public need to be aware that the proceeds from these fraudulent activities go to fund organised criminal gangs.”
Gubbins advised anyone shopping online to follow the 12 golden rules of safe online shopping:
The DO’s
The DON’Ts
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If the site handling the card information is properly encrypted, it doesn’t matter if the WiFi network itself is not.
And if the site isn’t encrypted, then you shouldn’t trust it with your details, even on your own WiFi.
@Gerard: agreed WiFi has nothing to do with it.
@Gerard: Man in the middle attack using a pineapple or similar device with SSLstrip could still leave you scratching your head as you ponder your emptier than usual bank account.
@Padraic Burke: It does, there are people in public places with access points which your phone will connect to automatically. They program thousands of free wifi sites like airports, hotels etc into it, and if you have connected to any if them before you phone will reconnect, allowing the person access to anything you do on your phone.
WiFi Wánkers
I was a victim of Debit card fraud last year. I had used my visa debit to buy something online. The most frustrating part of it was that even though I only had approx €300 in the account , it was defrauded to the tune of €1200 , event though I had no overdraft facility on that account , so my balance was minus €900. I didn’t get much satisfaction from the bank , as they told me they can authorise any amount to leave my account .
@cars: outta curiosity how was it resolved in the end…surely you didn’t have to cover the 1200 euro ?
@Tom Thumb: i got it back after about 2 weeks , the fraud on the account was flagged early so the bank froze all transactions.I also had to go to the Guards to report it though. There were 3 transactions altogether, the first one was a small amount , to a Vet in the USA , the next 2 were to Apple for a few hundred each.
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