It may be the season of giving for many, but for many more, it’s the season of taking advantage of fatigue and lowered defences.

Case in point the South African Police Services (SAPS) in Limpopo this week detailed an armed robbery of a stokvel. Members of the stokvel reportedly withdrew R60 000 in cash from an ATM in Mankweng on Saturday. Two armed suspects then accosted the members of the stokvel and stole the funds.

“Stokvel members withdraw large amounts of money and proceed to the house of one of the members to share it, especially during this time of the year. This method obviously attracts criminals. Stokvel members are advised to make use of electronic funds transfer (EFT), which minimises crimes of this nature,” SAPS Limpopo Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe, told SA News.

However, while doing an EFT may be safer, it’s important to be vigilant online as well.

Over the holiday period cybercrime tends to surge. In 2021, UK cybersecurity firm Darktrace reported that it had discovered a 30 percent increase in the average number of attempted ransomware attacks globally.

During the pandemic we saw cybercrime spike as the threat surface increased and since then attacks have only continued to increase while becoming more sophisticated.

With this in mind, Check Point Software recently shared six tips to be safer while shopping or transacting online.

• “Always buy from an authentic and reliable source: always look for the link in the search engine you use, never click on links sent to you by e-mail or text message, as they are potentially dangerous because many cybercriminals try to phish through these channels.
• Be aware of similar domains: cybercriminals will always try to make the domains they create for the pages they imitate look as similar as possible to the original, but they will always have some spelling mistakes, or the domain name will be misspelled. So, by paying close attention to such spellings, we will be able to avoid future problems.
• Offers that seem too good to be true will always be too good to be true: if an offer is too good to be true, it is probably a scam, even more so at this time of the year when there are usually no big discounts. Do not get carried away by surprisingly low prices.
• Always look for the lock: secure Internet sites have the letters HTTPS at the beginning of the domain, as opposed to those that are not, which have HTTP without the final ‘s’. HTTPS sites are those that comply with international security standards.
• Have endpoint security solutions in place: it is necessary to have them for the email as well as for websites when we surf the Internet, since they can prevent the spread of such malware to the rest of the equipment or computers.
• Always be on the lookout for password reset emails: companies will never ask you to reset your password unless you have requested it yourself, so if you receive an email asking you to change your password, the best thing to do is to go to the company’s website and change your password from there.”

When in doubt, ask for help. A quick chat with a friend or family member asking them for their advice on whether something looks dangerous could potentially prevent a costly breach.

Where possible we also highly recommend making use of virtual cards when transacting online as in the event that these details are compromised, safety features such as a randomly generated CVV number can prevent unwanted purchases.

Finally, to come back to the real world, we recommend downloading an app such as Namola in the event that you find yourself in trouble. The app is available for free for all devices and we can confirm that it works better than you can imagine.

Stay safe this festive season whether it’s online or IRL.

[Image – Luis Villasmil on Unsplash]