SHOPPERS HAVE BEEN warned of scams ahead of Black Friday sales, especially to those who choose to shop online.

Phishing and text-message scams have been on the rise in recent weeks and consumers are advised to make sure they are not vulnerable to links that could lead to their data or financial details being stolen.

Digital Business Ireland, the representative organisation for digital commerce, have provided a five-point checklist to shoppers, who intend to shop online tomorrow, to make sure their data and details are kept safe.

The group is reminding shoppers of basic internet tips such as making sure the websites you visit as ‘HTTPS’ certified and have a green bar or lockpad and clicking suspicious or false links.

For shoppers intending to purchase tickets, they are reminded to only buy ticket from trusted websites as 1 in 10 ticket buyers have purchased fakes in the United Kingdom.

Consumers have also been cautioned on social media being used by fraudsters intending to sell items to them through fake accounts by Digital Business Ireland.

UK import tariffs now also apply to consumers in Ireland. The group recommends that consumers buy from websites with ‘.ie’ suffixes or by shopping locally, in store, where possible.

The group says Irish households spend a collective €5 billion every year over the Christmas period, which leads to “fertile ground” for fraudsters attempting to steal financial or personal information, or scam shoppers out of their money.

Digital Business Ireland urges shoppers to “protect themselves by using security software, never clicking links unless they know the sender and having a heightened awareness of the possibility of fraud”.

The warning is also extended to those selling items online as well, as one Cork woman fell victim to a scam where a person, posing as a buyer, sent her a link which took all her funds from her bank account.

Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103′s Cork Today Show, Garda Frances Murphy of Bandon Garda Station said the woman entered her details into the link the fraudster provided and, although she had a small amount of money in her account, it was “cleaned out”.

Other messages, posing as phone providers or government agencies, have also led to people’s bank accounts being stolen from.

Garda Murphy told the programme the scammers are using similar tactics by giving victims a link to enter their bank details and money is taken from their accounts.

She added that there has been cases where the bank has managed to stop this from taking place before the money was taken.

Murphy said: “Ring the phone shop, ring customer service, call in person into Vodafone. Don’t take anything for granted through [text] message.”

Other messages, such as the infamous ‘Hello Mam’ scam or phone calls from scammers pretending to be from Amazon, have also taken place which have also led to people falling victim to scams.

Murphy added: “Do not accept any messages. Do not take them for granted and just ask for a call in-person.”

In May, the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland called for a “whole of system response” to tackle these false messages, known as ‘push payment fraud’.

Other recent warnings came from The Central Bank, who warned of scams that were targeting consumers seeking cash loans from online providers after the bank said it is seeing an increasing number of cases of advance fee fraud.