For online shoppers

If you'd rather avoid the frantic and often chaotic over-packed malls this holiday season, I for one do not blame you. However, browsing items online is difficult when you are buying for someone and you are not sure what to get them. The simple efficiency of the internet eliminates the tactile nature of what happens when you go through a store and get to pick up items, feel them, or even smell them, which may often help you to decide what to purchase. For these instances, I've found a website called, very simply, Gifts. This is a great creative resource that you can use for gift shopping year-round, and has a variety of categories to help you narrow your search, including gender, age, occasion, etc. If nothing else, this tool can even help you decide what to get before you go out to the stores themselves, by helping you brain storm and sort through ideas.

Watching out online,

With more and more consumers turning to online markets to get most of their holiday shopping done, its important to be aware of what transactions and information you are using online. Many scams are conducted via email in the guise of bank or PayPal concerns or requests for information or confirmations. Do not be fooled into replying to these, as doing so can result identity or monetary theft in some form. Recently, I came across a great resource when it comes to dealing with these issues. This website, called Anti-Phishing provides information, archives, and mapping on these online crimes, called "phishing" or "pharming." According to their main page:

"What is Phishing and Pharming?
Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social-engineering schemes use 'spoofed' e-mails to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers. Hijacking brand names of banks, e-retailers and credit card companies, phishers often convince recipients to respond. Technical subterfuge schemes plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials directly, often using Trojan keylogger spyware. Pharming crimeware misdirects users to fraudulent sites or proxy servers, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning."


They even provide a reporting service, where you can email attacks you come across to reportphishing@antiphishing.com.