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This Christmas, UK shoppers will spend 15 per cent more online compared to last year, with a staggering 71 per cent of us buying our presents over the net - each of us spending £215 on average - according to recent surveys. But cyber-criminals are cottoning on to this change in our spending habits, and devising new ploys to steal our money.

We can expect to see everything from rogue greeting cards, bogus messages sent from hijacked facebook accounts, and spam emails telling us there have been problems with our orders or deliveries - all prompting us to either hand over cash, credit card details or enter login and password data at compromised websites.

However, Tim Callan, vice president at security firm VeriSign, told Shopper how our readers can come out of the holiday season with their wallets intact.

"Be sceptical of everything that you get in email," he said. "And don't give out any information to 'strangers' online that you wouldn't give to a stranger in the street. You wouldn't give a stranger who you have just met your credit card details or postcode, so don't give it to

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websites when you don't know who may be at the other end."

He also warned that if you do get an email that appears to be from your bank or from an online retailer, not to respond to the email directly. Instead go to the official website by typing the correct URL in the address bar - or phone up to speak to a customer assistant from the bank or retailer - and if there's a problem with your account, they'll let you know.

Callan advised to be wary of where you see the SSL padlock icon too. He warned that some rogue websites display a padlock inside the content of the page, but if a connection is actually secure, it'll appear in the browser interface.

The padlock itself means that the connection may be secure, but not necessarily to a legitimate party. Click on the padlock to verify who is on the other side, Callan advised.

Other advice he offered includes looking out for a green address bar. This signifies that the site has undergone extensive identity authentication so that you can be confident it is the site it claims to be.

And check the web address of any site you intend to trust. Be suspicious of any site with an unknown domain that contains the name of a well known site in the latter part of the web address.

"Online shopping can and should be a safe activity so long as you know how to keep yourself safe," said Callan.

"What many consumers don't realise is that obvious visual cues have been created to help them easily decipher if the website they're transacting on is legitimate and safe. If consumers took a few simple steps to distinguish a safe site from a fraudulent site, the growing rate of fraud in the UK could be greatly reduced."