18 Sep Black Friday Safety Tips
When the busiest shopping weekend of the year arrives, if you’ll be one of the millions of holiday shoppers, take some extra precautions to protect yourself, your purchases and personal information.
How can I protect myself in the store?
- Keep your purse close to your body or your wallet in an inside coat pocket or front pants pocket.
- Don’t argue or fight over an item.
- Don’t take your money out until asked to do so.
- Use only 1 credit card. This reduce the risk of having multiple cards compromised.
- Save your receipts and monitor your credit card activity.
- Ask for help moving and loading large items if needed.
- If shopping with children, select a central location to meet in case you are separated. Teach children how to ask a security guard or employee for help if they are lost.
- Avoid ATM’s. If you can’t at least choose one that is well lit. Shield your PIN as key it in, and don’t leave behind receipts that may contain personal information.
How can I be safer in the car?
- Be patient when looking for a parking space. Don’t speed up to catch that empty (or soon-to-be-empty) spot and be cautious of other drivers who do.
- Park your vehicle in a well-lit area.
- Look around and under your vehicle before approaching it.
- Store shopping bags out of plain sight, in your boot if possible.
- Look for other cars or people and reverse out slowly.
How can I protect myself on the internet?
- Opting to join Black Friday from your couch? You still need to be on the lookout.
- Stick to retailers you know and preferably, have shopped with before.
- Research a business you have not purchased from before by checking customer reviews or complaints.
- Never commit to a deal that seems too good to be true.
- Refrain from using public Wi-Fi to make purchases or use a VPN to avoid hackers intercepting your information.
- Check a webpage’s security by looking for the lock icon in the URL field and making sure the URL starts with “https”, not just “http”. The “s” means the site is safer and more secure.
Be safe and enjoy your shopping!!!!