Cyber Monday is the Monday following Black Friday. It marks the unofficial start of the online shopping season, though is not the busiest online shopping day of the season. Much like enticing super-deals at the brick and mortar stores last Friday, online retailers will roll out their own one day specials Monday morning. Last year about 850 million dollars was spent on Cyber Monday, with internet sales growing rapidly each year. In fact online retailing is expected to grow 8% this year.
All this activity, the millions of transactions and transferring of vast sums of money, brings out the risk of identity theft to shoppers not prepared to deal with the risks of online shopping. Local expert Brian West of Method 8 Corporation says never give out your bank PIN number, and use secure sites, which usually ask for user names and passwords.
Bankinfosecurity.com offers their own set of tips to stay safe in the virtual world. Common sense measures include:
1.Shop at retailers you know and trust
2.Never share usernames or passwords
3.Be sure your anti-virus and anti spyware software is current
4.Check your credit card transactions for accuracy
5.Never buy from a spam site
6.Turn off your computer when finished.
So what is the busiest online shopping day of the year? It falls in mid-December, on the last day that items can be shipped in time for Christmas.
