Manley Highlights Safe Shopping Tips During the Holiday Season

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – In order to ensure that residents are staying safe from scams this holiday season, state Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, is encouraging residents to take a few moments and learn about a few ways they can protect themselves while online shopping this month and beyond.

“While the holidays are a great time to relax, it is important to stay vigilant while shopping for gifts for your friends and family,” said Manley. “The last thing anyone wants to deal with is having their information or money stolen, especially during the holidays.”

As part of her effort to help connect her constituents to information that can help them avoid common scams and fraud, Manley is highlighting the Illinois Department of Revenue’s online shopping tips. These tips include ways to make your online accounts more difficult for a scammer to access, such as using strong passwords and two-factor authentication, keeping your devices safer by making sure your software is updated and using antivirus programs, and keeping your personal information safe by refraining from giving out information such as bank accounts or Social Security numbers. Using credit cards, rather than debit cards, and limiting interactions with marketing emails can also protect residents when shopping online.

“One of the best ways to protect yourself from identity theft or having your information or money stolen online is knowing some best practices to follow when online shopping,” said Manley. “This holiday season, I highly encourage residents to be careful when shopping so that they can focus on spending time with their loved ones and not on trying to recover their lost information online.”