At the end of last week I received an unusual email from a toy retailer in southern Germany.
I should give my address, it said, so that the desired order could be delivered to me.
I was startled.
Until then, it had never happened before that someone asked for the address again after a paid order: I had to give it.
So I didn't press "Reply" directly, but called - not the number given in the email (if it was a fraudulent email, it would probably be wrong), but the number on the company's website .
Today I got a call back, the inquiry was real, the house number was missing, everything was fine.
All of this took time, but it brings me to the best tip I can give myself and other stressed shoppers in the pre-Christmas online shopping madness: always stop and hesitate.
Better once too much than once too little.
Icon: enlarge
Buying gifts online: things don't always go smoothly
Photo: Valentin Russanov / Getty Images
Cyber criminals often benefit from users' rush
Because while the big online retailers would like to steer us from one excessive purchase to the next, meanwhile turn Black Friday into a whole week and immediately add Cyber Monday today, criminals are often also happy about spontaneous and thoughtless buying pleasure.
My colleague Matthias Kremp has therefore put together a few pieces of advice with which we online shoppers can safely survive the virtual Christmas shopping.
Classics like two-factor authentication are included.
It can also protect you from panic, for example, if your Amazon password has been fished.
Or checking the browser line before entering your credit card details anywhere: is it really https up there?
Falling for fraudsters is neither a shame nor unusual: It even happens to IT professionals, because cyber criminals often benefit from users being in a hurry, stressful and careless.
That is why the most important tip in my colleague's text is: don't let yourself be rushed.
Buy - especially on the internet - carefully and wisely.
However, if you take this to heart, you will have to deal with a whole series of other questions:
Do I really need what I am buying?
Is there a bargain at the moment or does it just look like it?
How are the employees of the company from which I'm currently ordering - and who has to deliver all of this to me?
What does my purchase mean for the climate?
Is the product perhaps also available from a retailer that I would like to support in the corona crisis?
Or the other way around: Do I have to deal with poorly maintained mini online shops when almost everything is available from the online giant?
Everyone answers these questions differently, you can ask yourself them in between.
But then shopping is no longer quick, convenient and uncomplicated.
Therefore, my personal resolution for this Advent is: I take time for thoughtful online shopping.
And I don't forget those who bring me the parcels later.
Strange digital world: I read it.
Really.
Icon: enlarge Photo: Arno Burgi / dpa
When my colleagues write articles, I like to point them out on Twitter and advertise the texts.
The retweet button is often enough, with which I pass a corresponding tweet from colleagues or SPIEGEL on to my followers.
However, recently in such cases Twitter has always asked me whether I want to read the text first before I blindly retweet it?
It's a fairly new feature of Twitter, according to the company, "making conversations on Twitter better and safer."
The request "counteracts the unintentional dissemination of misleading information on Twitter".
I am unsure whether the concept will work with the headline-only readers who are probably intended.
Personally, I am amused by the patronizing question every time: Yes, Twitter, I read this text, long before it appeared.
I commissioned it, edited it, supplemented it a little and then published it.
And now I just want to use your button to point out the link that leads to this well-known article.
Without clicking this link again, so that you too will know that I have read it.
Of course, the note is not meant for such cases, and you can simply ignore it, but: Others may have read a text in another way before they retweeted it.
Or they don't want to read it at all, just get upset about the headline - and yes, that has to work.
As much as I approve of all efforts made by social networks to fight false information: This function arouses less interest in the supposedly unknown content, but rather resentment.
External links: three tips from other media
"Corona warning app available soon at F-Droid" (two minutes to read)
In the alternative app store for Android there will soon be a completely open source version of the corona warning app - for smartphones without Google services.
This is mainly thanks to a developer who doesn't pay a cent for it.
“Guns, Drugs and Viral Content: Welcome to Cartel TikTok” (English, five minutes to read)
“Narco
bling and dancing gang members «: Mexican drug gangs stage themselves on TikTok, hundreds of thousands are watching.
The criminals use the videos for recruiting.
“When you need to confirm you're not a robot” (video, English, 1:24 minutes)
Put a cross, recognize letters, mark pictures with traffic lights, enter codes: It can be damn difficult to prove to a website that you are is not a bot.
And damn funny, as this video from Stevie Martin shows.
I wish you a nice first week of Advent,
Judith Horchert
