Online shopping is a wonderful convenience, from ordering gifts for grandkids, to getting groceries or essentials delivered straight to your door. But shopping online also comes with risks. Cyber criminals often use online stores to try to steal personal or financial information. That’s why it’s wise to take a few simple precautions before you click “Buy”.

Every year, late November brings two big shopping events that started in the United States: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Fake online stores, unbelievable discounts, and dodgy payment links often appear during this period, and all are designed to trick you into handing over money or personal information. The good news? A few simple checks can help you spot a scam before it spots you.

Remember when doing the shopping meant a trip into town, queuing at the checkout, and lugging bags back to the car? These days, you can buy almost anything from the comfort of your favourite armchair — from groceries and gardening supplies to gifts for the grandkids. It's marvellous, really. A few clicks on your computer or tablet, and it arrives at your doorstep.

Most people don’t realise they’ve been infected. It's common for some malware to lie dormant on your computer, while it looks for ways to spread itself to other computers in your home or workplace, and looks for ways to spread to your friends, family and work colleagues via various messenger services.

Many of you may have seen reports that Qantas recently had a data breach, confirmed by the airline itself, in which personal data for around six million customers was exposed when a third-party contact-centre system was accessed by cyber criminals. That kind of incident may sound like something for the big boys, but it has real-life consequences for all of us — particularly when it comes to scams via text messages (SMS) and email. Here’s what it means and what you can do