The Price Of A Happy Christmas: Nearly A Quarter Of New Zealand Adults Surveyed Taking Risks Shopping Online

The rising cost of living will have an impact on consumers' Christmas shopping habits this year, according to a global study by Norton, a leading Cyber Safety brand from NortonLifeLock. More than 3 in 4 New Zealanders (77%) say they are likely to take actions this holiday season to help cut costs due to the rising cost of living, with some (8%) even willing to click on a questionable link to save money. In fact, nearly a quarter of New Zealanders (22%) surveyed say they tend to take more risks when online shopping during the holiday season than other times of the year, like buying from an unknown seller and clicking on online ads.

This is despite more than a quarter of those surveyed (28%) said they had already been the victim of a scam during previous holidays seasons, losing on average NZ$509.

The results also show that while people are aware of the risks online, nearly a quarter of New Zealand adults (24%) surveyed have made a holiday season purchase by clicking on questionable ads on social media, putting themselves at risk of fraud. The research was conducted online in August 2022 among 1,001 New Zealand adults by The Harris Poll.

This year, respondents name toys, books or board games (40%), smartphones (34%), smart watches (33%), and gaming consoles (32%) as the most sought-after gifts. Furthermore, the study shows that half of Kiwi adults surveyed (50%) would be willing to take various actions this Christmas season to get a coveted gift. Thus, 30% say they will probably spend more than three hours searching online. However, some go a step further: 13% would also risk their personal or online safety by sharing personal information.

With large-scale breaches and identity theft making the news, three quarters (75%) of New Zealand adults surveyed admit they are concerned their personal details will be compromised shopping online, and 55% are worried they will be scammed by a third-party retailer. Additionally:

· 51% are concerned a device they buy for someone else is digitally unsafe

· 49% are concerned that a device they receive as a gift is hacked

· 47% are concerned their holiday travel arrangements or accommodations are being ruined by a scammer

· 43% are concerned about buying or receiving a refurbished device as gift.

Furthermore, nearly 2 in 5 of Kiwi adults surveyed (38%) admit to risking their personal information or privacy in one of the following ways during the holiday season – posting a picture of their travel destination (24%), tagging their current location on social media (19%), posting a picture of an expensive gift they received (12%), posting a picture showing their train/plane/bus ticket without removing any personal information (10%), and/or revealing their travel plans on social media (10%). Alarmingly – but perhaps not surprisingly – younger adults are more than three times as likely to conduct any of these behaviours during the holiday season (68% aged 18-39 vs. 20% aged 40+).

“New Zealand’s inflation rate is understandably tough on wallets and we expect that will make this Christmas season particularly appealing to scammers. Kiwis need to remain vigilant and be really careful to protect themselves when shopping this holiday, as cybercriminals will leverage ‘too good to be true’ deals to steal credit card details and other private information,” says Mark Gorrie, Norton Managing Director APJ, NortonLifeLock.

“These criminals only require a few pieces of your personal information to commit fraud and identity theft, so New Zealanders should stick to reputable sites to avoid their data being compromised and shared on the dark web,” added Gorrie.

To help New Zealanders stay safer this holiday season, Norton recommends these key actionable steps to avoiding risks while shopping online:

1. Stickto reputable retailers: Do yourdue diligence, including checking seller ratings, and preferably purchasing from retailers with a physical address, a customer service phone numberand a professional-looking site. Warning signs of sketchy sites include poorspelling, odd design and slow loading.

2. Avoid suspicious links from social media ads or unfamiliar emails: Chasing a bargain? Don’t click on suspicious links even if they look attractive. Stay vigilant and don’t fall for the cheap price tag.

3. Ifyou get a message, an email or SMS about an item you didn’t order, stop and think: If you’re unsure whether amessage is legitimate, contact the business through established channels you can find, chat through their website or call their customer service phone number

4. Use a virtual private network (VPN) when making online purchases on public or unsecured Wifi

5. Look out for fake websites: Fraudsters may set up fake websites ofproducts that don't exist so they can collect payments for goods that they'llnever send. They may even provide “excuses” for a while, so by the time yourealise, you might be stuck – out of pocket and missing a gift for someone on your list.

6. Use reputable online safety tools: Identity theft is an ongoing concern, with people’s personal data used to take out loans and securecredit cards in the victim’s name.You can choose comprehensive tools from Norton for your devices to flag unsafe sites and filter fraudulent SMS messages. If you’re concerned about identity theft, Norton Identity Advisor Plus provides access to a Restoration Specialist to guide you in the event of identity theft, as well as Social Media Monitoring1 and Dark Web Monitoring2, to alert you if your registered data is found on the dark web, so you can take action and help prevent account takeover.

To view the full results from the 2022 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report: Special Release – Holiday, and accompanying visual assets, visit https://newsroom.nortonlifelock.com/norton-cyber-safety-report.

About the 2022 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report: Special Release – Holiday 

The research was conducted online in New Zealand by The Harris Poll on behalf of NortonLifeLock among 1,001 adults aged 18+. The survey was conducted August 15 – September 1, 2022. Data are weighted where necessary by age, gender, region, education, marital status, and household size to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 3.7 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

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