Irish consumers warned about risks of online shopping ahead of Black Friday

“In the region of 75% of all card fraud occurs online, so serious caution is required when purchasing goods or services,” she said.

Irish consumers who buy online are being warned to make purchases only on secure websites as more than €4bn in e-commerce purchases using cards is expected to be made between November and December.

The Gardaí and FraudSmart- a bank-funded organisation - issued the alert and urged consumers to be extra cautious in their online activity on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and to make purchases using only secure websites, where ‘https’ and a padlock symbol are shown.