Quiz: How Secure is Your Online Holiday Shopping? - Money Tip Tuesday

It’s time to start shopping for the holidays again, are you ready? With online shopping, buying gifts for the holidays has never been easier. However, there is also some risk involved with scammers waiting to take advantage of your holiday spirit. We have a quiz for you to see if you know what to do to protect yourself and your finances while shopping online. 

Links: 

• Listen to our fraud prevention podcast episode on Fraud Protection Tactics to Keep Your Family Safe with Jose Rivera Hernandez
• Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
• Learn more about Triangle Credit Union

Transcript:

Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal podcast. 

Question 1: When shopping online is it better to use your debit card or your credit card? 

It is better to use your credit card. If your debit card is compromised, scammers can take funds directly from your bank account, whereas with a credit card, it just goes on your credit. There are also laws that limit your liability with credit card fraud, so you’re not financially responsible for unauthorized credit card use.  

Question 2: You just received an email from someone claiming to be “Amazon” offering 75% off your next purchase if you click the link. You hover over the link and it does not go to Amazon. Should you: 

1. Click the link 
2. Report phishing 
3. Forward it to your mom and see what she thinks 
4. Reply to the email asking if this is real 

The answer is B, report phishing. If you are not sure if an email is legitimate or not, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Do not click the link or interact with the sender, and definitely do not forward it to your mom or anyone else. This email is likely from a scammer trying to get your personal information.  

Question 3: You have just finished shopping and are about to check out when you notice that next to the URL there is a triangle with an exclamation mark and it says “Not Secure”. Should you: 

1. Continue checking out and insert your payment method 
2. Stop shopping and leave the page 
3. Refresh the page 
4. Add more items to your cart 

You should stop shopping and leave the page. Never put in your financial information or any personal information if it says “Not Secure”. Make sure that the website URL you are shopping from starts with HTTPS and there is a padlock icon next to it. This means that any information that you put in is encrypted. 

Question 4: Which of the following should you do before shopping online: 

1. Update your browser and computer operating system 
2. Connect to a public WiFi network 
3. Make sure all of your passwords for online marketplaces are the same so you can login easier 
4. All of the above 

The answer is A: update your browser and computer operating system. Updating these ensures that your security is up to date and will give you more protection. You should not connect to a public WiFi network, as these are often unsecure which makes getting to your financial information easier. Do not use the same password for everything, because if one password is compromised, they all are. Use unique and complex passwords for each site. 

Question 5: The hottest gift of the year is sold out, but you need to get it. You finally found a seller on eBay but they have marked it up 100%. They don’t have any pictures of the gift except for one that came from the official website. You click on the seller’s profile and they are new. Should you buy from them? 

The answer is of course no. The seller is either a scammer or a scalper. In this case, you can’t tell if the seller even has the item since the picture is from the official website and not from the seller. They might not even have the item. Or they are trying to take advantage of your holiday spirit and upcharge you by a lot. It is probably in your best interest to just wait until this item is back in stock.  

That’s it for this quiz, how did you do? Let us know on our social media pages! 

If there are any other tips or topics you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org and don't forget to like and follow our Making Money Personal Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on Instagram and LinkedIn to share your thoughts.  

Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  

Have a great day!