Full Notification

Holiday Crime Prevention Advisory
The popularity of online shopping has steadily increased over the years with now almost 80% of U.S. consumers making online purchases. The number of internet crime complaints has simultaneously increased as well. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), in 2016 New York had the 4th highest number of internet crime victims in the country, and ranked 2nd in losses with victims in New York losing an estimated $106 million. The Westchester Intelligence Center recommends the following measures be shared with local communities in order to prevent victimization:

Online Shopping Safety/Security Tips

 Only make online purchases through reputable companies.
 Beware of sales through private companies or individual sellers that sound “too good to be true,” because most likely, they are.
 No matter what device or internet connection you use when making online purchases, make sure you see the padlock symbol or “https” in the url bar.
 Beware of making online purchases over public Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi might be free and convenient, but using your mobile device’s data plan is safer.
 Use credit cards or gift cards for online purchases instead of debit cards.
 If you see a pop-up advertisement online, do not click on the advertisement. Instead, type the link in the url bar to insure you are going to the actual website/advertisement and not a malicious one.
 Monitoring your accounts is always a best practice, but keep in mind that cyber criminals will often wait to use the information they collected until several months after a victim’s purchase was made.
 If you feel you have become a victim of an internet related crime, report immediately to your local PD, financial institutions, and the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov