A flurry of scams accompany Black Friday shopping

You can be very careful when shopping but you will still be at risk. Each time you hand your credit card to someone or transmit your credit card number over the Internet, you're putting yourself at risk. The Privacy Rights Clearing House tracks data breaches, reporting publicly on incidents of merchants and vendors exposing your private data to identity thieves. Millions of consumers are put at risk because of data breaches each year.

And during the holiday season, you're at even greater risk. No longer are consumers forced to wait in gargantuan lines to get deals on Black Friday. The Internet has become a safe-haven of those who don't like crowds, but still want to get in on the deals.