For those who are not digital natives (that is, for those who were born before 1980 and are not used to digital technology), one of the main obstacles to buying online is security: when entering your data, using a credit card or when they receive the product at home.
If we take into account that, according to a study by Tiendanube, nearly 40% of online store visitors are between the ages of 25 and 34this means that there may be a significant number of people who still do not buy online for fear of what might happen.
It is undeniable that Internet security conditions have improved a lot in recent years and there are more and more tools to deal with fraud. Although it is also true that computer crimes are increasingly complex.
According to the last annual study of electronic commerce carried out by the CACE (Argentine Chamber of Electronic Commerce). Confidence in ecommerce is growing!
Therefore, it is important for both sellers and buyers to be vigilant to prevent fraud and help e-commerce continue to grow. And it is important not to lose sight of the role of online store owners as educators and disseminators of these issues.
So what is the phishing?
Within this scenario, one of the main methods of Internet fraud is the so-called phishing. This term refers to the word fishing (“fishing”, in English) and refers to the attempt to make Internet users “take the bait”.
Generally speaking, what the criminal intends (or phishing) it is steal some confidential information from a personsuch as your password, your credit card or your bank details.
Although there are several types of phishing, the most common and simple is the one that uses email as a means to commit fraud. Have you ever received emails that seemed strange to you, with requests to update bank details, or that they sent you to suspicious sites to fill out forms or download some software. Well, that is precisely an attempt to phishing.
Let’s look at an example:
In that email, apparently sent from YouTube, a user is notified that he has a message within the video platform. In order to view this message, it is necessary to click on the link included in the email. But if you hover your mouse over the link, without clicking, you’ll see that in the lower left corner you can see what the destination URL is and it has nothing to do with YouTube. If it were a real email, the URL would start with “www.youtube.com”.
In addition, the box from which the email is sent does not show signs of being from YouTube either, since after the at sign what you see is “pe-gmbh.com” and not “youtube.com”. Therefore, it is evident that it is a fake email (or the famous ones) and you do not have to click on that link.
To get users to “take the bait”, it is very common for hackers to use the logo or name of some popular website as a front, such as YouTube, Google or Facebook. This means that they hardly use the name of a small or medium online store, since they tend to focus on very large platforms, such as Mercado Libre, Amazon or eBay. But, even so, it is important that you be vigilant and take all the precautions you can.
How to avoid the phishing in e-commerce?
Now, is there any way to prevent your buyers from receiving fraudulent emails that pretend to have been sent from your store? No, because it is something that does not depend on your actions. What you can do is maintain a series of practices to educate your buyers and prevent them from falling for online fraud.
Think about the following: if a buyer is scammed when making an online purchase, there are chances that they will not buy online again, and that affects all online ventures.
Here are some tips for your online store to encourage the detection of fake emails (or phishing):
1. Specify the communication channels of your online store
If you regularly send emails to your buyers or followers, it can be a good idea clarify from which box you send these communications and what type of information they usually include (news, notice of completed operation, notice of shipment made, etc).
You can use the “Frequently Asked Questions” section on your ecommerce website to talk about this.
2. Use a clear design and always respect the visual identity of your brand
A good way for your buyers to be sure that the emails you send are trustworthy is for them to be in tune with the color palette of your brand and with the design of your online store.
If you send an email with different colors and aesthetics than what is seen in your store, your buyers may feel insecure and perhaps even the sale is frustrated.
3. Avoid using external links in emails
If you include links in the emails you send, try to always direct them to your online store (for example, to a product page or to the “How to buy” section). If, for some reason, you need the person to go to an external link (like a Google form, for example), it’s a good idea to clarify this so that they are not surprised to find content they did not expect.
4. Use a secure ecommerce platform
This is probably the most important point. If your e-commerce platform uses reliable payment gateways and takes care of security in every part of your online store, you can be very calm.
In the case of Tiendanube, for example, the most reliable payment platforms are available, such as Mercado Pago and PayU, which They have anti-fraud detection services. In addition, the check out (that is, the purchase process) is done through a secure server and with protocols that take care of the buyers’ data.
Summary
The phishing It is a problem that, despite the growing number of IT security tools, continues to cause problems within electronic commerce. That is why it is very important to be prepared and constantly educate your buyers.
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