In November, experts provide invaluable warnings against shopping fraud.

Experts warning about the risk of fraud during the discounts of shopping sites in November have advised citizens for safe shopping.

Experts stated that citizens should be conscious to avoid being victimized during the discounts organized by shopping sites every November. Emphasizing that there are many methods of fraud, experts expressed that sometimes a message or a copy of a popular site can trap citizens into their nets.

"FACING THE RISK OF LOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION"

Dr. Ali Osman Çıbıkdiken, a faculty member of the Computer Engineering Department at KTO Karatay University, noted that the discounts are met with great interest by citizens, stating, "With the November discounts, people are making a great effort to track 'where there are discounts, how are the prices,' and they are also interacting on social media. Most of these processes are carried out through online shopping sites. While citizens are conducting these transactions online, they face two types of problems. The first is that the interest in shopping may be used by the other party to seize information. The simplest example of this is when a message says, 'There is a discount at a store, click this link for the discount,' if there is malicious software there, the user risks losing their personal information because they downloaded that malicious software onto their computer. The other issue is that copies of popular shopping sites are generally made. While the user thinks they are shopping on that site, which has an identical appearance, when they share their credit card information, they end up suffering serious damage," he said.

"FREE CHEESE IS ONLY IN A MOUSE TRAP"

Çıbıkdiken pointed out that the second method is through cheap-priced products, stating, "The second point is that people are deceived through fraud methods on this shopping site. The price of a product is shown to be very attractive, and it is presented as if there is a campaign related to that product, but after receiving the payment, they say that the product is not available or has run out, managing the processes this way. During this process, the user suffers significantly. Their money remains with the other party. During the comparison process of these products, it is essential to look from different places. The main idea should never be forgotten; free cheese is only in a mouse trap. If a product is very cheap, there is definitely a trick or an undesirable situation," he said.

"VIRTUAL CARDS MUST BE USED"

Emphasizing that the most important issue is to reach the real seller and to be conscious in shopping, Çıbıkdiken stated, "To find real sellers, we ask them to write the exact address in the browser's address bar. While searching for a popular shopping site with a search engine, there may be sites that are copies and have risen to the top in the search engine. Especially, there are websites with similar letters in their names. For example, let there be a website name starting with 'a,' and a dot is placed over the 'a.' We especially recommend that they use virtual cards and virtual card limits while shopping. At least, if they encounter a bad situation, it would be better if they lose only a certain amount rather than all their assets. Another issue is that we recommend shopping from places with appropriate verification systems. For example, it would be suitable to shop from sites that prefer methods like receiving a password via a message," he expressed.