Black Friday and Cyber Monday - online safety advice issued

HSBC and IoM Constabulary team up to tackle fraudsters

The police and HSBC have teamed up to offer advice on how to avoid being scammed when making purchases in the run-up to Christmas.

The campaign has been launched to coincide with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, particularly as the former saw the number of online purchases being made in the United Kingdom rise by 46% last year.

Police statistics from the UK show around £190,000 is lost to cyber criminals in the UK every day.

Inspector Gavin Callow is the Isle of Man Constabulary's cyber officer.

Ed Oldham asked him to outline the extent of the problem here:

He also asked Inspector Callow to go through some of the safety advice which is being issued:

The number for police headquarters is 631212.

You're also advised to contact Action Fraud via its website, actionfraud.police.uk

A reminder of some of those 'top tips' which have been issued:

- Don't pay for anything by transferring money directly to people or companies you don't know.

- Make sure shopping websites are authentic by carefully checking the address is spelt correctly.

- Ensure that payment pages are secure.

- When you've finished paying, log out of your account.

- Don't buy fakes intentionally or get duped into buying them, however cheap or 'authentic'.

- Beware of 'free' or 'low-cost' trials.

- Check that any holiday or travel you book online is genuine by researching it thoroughly.

- Buy concert, event, fixture or entry tickets from official sources.

- Watch out for unexpected emails, texts or posts urging you to click on a link or attachment.

All this advice and more is also available via getsafeonline.org/christmas