Washington Trust warns of holiday scams

WESTERLY – Washington Trust has released a holiday shopping advisory for online purchases to alert consumers to possible scams and to help protect identity and sensitive financial information.
One critical warning is never to enter credit card or debit care information on a page that is not encrypted, according to the Nov. 27 advisory from the bank.
When using the online checkout process of a seller, always make sure the web address has “https” instead of “http.” The “https” ensures an encrypted communication path to transmit the credit or debit card information via a secure path.
Another important practice when shopping online is to go directly to the seller’s site rather than clicking on a coupon link sent by an unknown source.
“Scammer often use a tactic called cross-site scripting to craft a hyperlink that appears to be a merchant site, but relays the credit information to the scammer,” according to the Washington Trust advisory.