Cybercriminals are always looking for ways to exploit people to get money and sensitive data from them. Usually, it happens without the people knowing they are being dragged into criminal activity. The holiday season is just one of those peak times when cybercriminals get easy chances to proceed with such activities. 

People are looking for good gifts, discounts, and offers online for the holiday festivities when cybercriminals lure them in with exactly what they are looking for and eventually scam them by gaining access to their personal details or getting the money sent to a scam intended account. 

Here are some of the ways to help you have a safe shopping spree during the holiday season:

• Phishing is one of the most common ways currently that people get attacked with. While it seems like a complex task to differentiate between fraudulent emails or messages, there are ways to determine this. For starters, you can check for the domain name or the message target, like if they want some sensitive data on urgency and there can be misspelled words that indicate the message to be fake.
• Another way of giving access to a data breach is through login credentials. Usually, people use the same credentials for various accounts, and even after receiving a faulty login notification, they still don’t change it. This leads to a risk of a greater data breach that we usually tend to ignore. So make sure to manage your credentials securely and change them whenever need be.
• For holidays, people travel to meet their loved ones, and during the travelling time, online shopping seems feasible. However, it can pose a cyber threat as well. Public WiFi is not to be trusted. It can allow breachers to have access to your personal info. For this, try to use a VPN before browsing the internet. Also, do not leave your device unattended to be entirely safe. 
• The best way to ensure a safe shopping spree is to shop from a legit website belonging to a known store. There will be a lot of links to shops offering discounts and offers, but a lot of these would be imposter sites ready to take up data from your side. So beware and shop only from trusted sources.
• You need to be alert anytime you are browsing the internet or during a hunch for online goods, regardless of the time of the year. Whether you are shopping for the holiday season or just a usual shopping haul, you need to keep your cyber guards up so that you can stay away from any cyber attack.

As digital activities are increasing and people are relying more on technological aspects, the threats of getting catfished by a cybercriminal are increasing as well. So, in the end, it all comes mainly to being responsible and alert while surfing online. Doing this will allow you to have a safer digital experience and dodge all the cybercrime threats.