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AiiMs recommends buyers keep both eyes wide open online
By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>
THERE IS SO MUCH Australians can do to protect themselves from online scammers and hackers. However, according to Janty Ayoub, founder and CEO of the AiiMs Group, people are not doing it.
“The first thing is that ‘buyer beware’ is the first thing that comes in at my end,” Mr Ayoub told Talking Business.
“If something doesn’t look right, don’t do it. Nothing is free in this life and when we’re purchasing online and put into a different data base and we don’t know where our data goes – and where our details go – and next minute we’re given an offer or deal like a free iPhone for paying $2 for a delivery, it just doesn’t make sense.
“So obviously that’s phishing for your information and phishing for your credit card details. You have to only purchase from trusted sites.”
Identifying trusted sites
Mr Ayoub said there were a few methods that helped users identify trusted sites. 
He said every site had a padlock near the company’s name.
“That padlock identifies whether it’s a secure site or not,” Mr Ayoub said.
“If the padlock is open, it’s a sign that it’s an unsecure site so it’s not verified. When the padlock is closed, it’s a sign that the site has been verified.”
Mr Ayoub said the AiiMs group always told client to read the reviews of websites, of companies and their offerings. This is all part of the process of due diligence.
“Type in the company’s name in Google and read what they’re about before you make that purchase,” he said.
“If they’ve had no reviews, then there is something wrong. If they’ve had five reviews and they’re all good, then that will increase your trust signals.
He said it was also important that people checked the terms and conditions of the product and service the company is offering.
Mr Ayoub said this was something that most Australians did not do.
“Unfortunately [about] 82 percent of online buyers don’t read the terms and conditions,” he said. “They’re more interested in knowing price, delivery, how fast something can come and the terms and conditions are among the smallest read pages on a site pre-purchase.”
He said terms and conditions were also governed by Common Law, so there was some consumer protections, but there were still problems.
“Again, it’s buyer beware. You are always told to read the Ts and Cs,” he said.
Check the URL itself
Mr Ayoub said another thing people could do to protect themselves from scammers was to check the URL of the site. With that information, people can do Google searches and see whether the company is a legitimate business, he said.
He said it was vital that the URL had a padlock on it.
“If the padlock is open, then it’s not a trusted site,” Mr Ayoub said.
“That business hasn’t applied the right principles of security online.”
He said “not being savvy” was no longer an excuse for people not to take precautions
“Online has come a very long way at helping anyone of any language and of any tech background to make a purchase and view a product online,” Mr Ayoub said.
“Across the whole world, we’re seeing a very big rise in hackers and scam artists playing on the vulnerability of people not being tech savvy.
“By not being tech savvy, you don’t understand – when you click a link or are asked to click on something -- that the technology being used is there to basically extract all of your personal information. It could be from your bank account, it could be from your driver’s licence.”
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.
https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business-22-interview-with-janty-ayoub-from-aiims
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