The Secur-Link Bulletin

Every year an increasing number of people do their holiday shopping on the Web to avoid long lines at the mall. However, for consumers who are not savvy about online safety, this convenience can come at a huge cost. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)—a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)—complaints from victims of online crime may top 300,000 this year, up from about 220,000 in 2007 (Shopping Online? Protect Your Computer from Online Fraud).

To avoid having your holidays ruined by a cyber scrooge, take a few important steps.

Safeguard your identity when you are online. Use monitoring services such as CardCops ID Secure. If you believe that your identity has been compromised, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and/or the IC3.
Learn the safest way to pay for purchases online. MSN Money’s article Protect Yourself: The Safest Ways to Pay Online provides useful information on this topic.
Review consumer safety tips for online shopping. Check out Microsoft’s article How to Shop Online More Safely This Holiday Season and the BBB’s Shopping Online for the Holidays: Twelve Tips to Protect Yourself from Cyber Grinches, Scams and Schemes alert.
Educate yourself about online scams, fraud, and identity theft and laws related to these types of crimes. WiredSafety and About.com are valuable resources for this type of information.
Review customer ratings for online stores. Web sites such as Epinions.com and BizRate provide customer evaluations for many large online retailers.
Beware of fraudulent e-mails and phishing scams. Microsoft’s article Recognize Phishing Scams and Fraudulent E-mail can help you recognize these types of attacks and effectively protect yourself.