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Let’s face it, America is still a Christian nation that loves the holiday season. This time of year, family and friends, many of whom have had a hard time getting together during the Biden era because of, among other things, the COVID-19 pandemic and out-of-control gas prices, may finally be gathering together this year to celebrate and catch up while the aroma of turkey and stuffing fill the air.
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Between now and the end of the year, it is not out of the ordinary to receive a visit from friends or relatives carrying gifts, many of which were probably purchased online. With online retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Apple growing their respective market shares on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce now represents a staggering 21% of global retail sales as of 2022, with 2.14 billion people shopping online in 2020, and e-commerce sales reaching $4.9 trillion in 2021.
Although online purchases may offer consumers a substantial savings by reducing the number of fill-ups needed at the pump, there are some very serious drawbacks to limiting your holiday shopping to the web.
One newer danger is the new wave of cybercriminals that have taken to publishing shopping sites that look identical to many of the more popular online retailers that consumers frequent to purchase goods. These sites are often difficult to differentiate from the genuine article, but one way of identifying them is to look for a misspelling in the name of the website, so look carefully at the URLs you are visiting while shopping online.