The holidays are a time for warm memories, good food, holiday lights and scams.
Scammers know that during the holidays people are going to be online looking for gifts and ways to donate their money to charity. They greatly increase their efforts hoping to hide their deceit in the chaos of the season and the increased flurry of ads and offers to consumers.
Here are some great ideas to protect yourself during the holiday season:
Tip 1 – be suspicious of disinformation. It is easy to hide a scam under half-truths or by using current events to promote donation scams. Use your critical thinking skills and always check the sources before you pull out your card. The holidays are a problematic time for charity scams. Only donate to organizations you know and trust.
Tip 2 — Don’t click on advertisements sent on social media, even if they are forwarded to you by friends. The holiday season isn’t a good time to experiment with new shopping sites. It is amazingly easy for scammers to create a fake website, even ones that mimic the actual company site. Signs it’s a scam: wrong URL for the company, misspelled words, insanely high or timed discounts, the shopping cart text isn’t set up completely, they are pushing you to spend extra money to get free shipping or a free gift. You have no guarantees that what you are purchasing will even make it to your home and once they have processed your credit card and the money is transferred to an overseas account – it’s gone. Only shop at trusted sites.
Example: You see an ad on facebook offering a large discount on a popular toy. You fall for it and click the link and it takes you to a website that looks almost exactly like the real site. You have fun shopping and put in your payment information. They may collect your full credit card info when you hit submit, but even if they don’t you just made a legitimate authorized purchase according to your bank account. You have little recourse since you authorized it and it looks like a legitimate purchase to your bank.
Tip 3 – Don’t fall for delivery scams. Scammers will send you a notification that appears to come from a legitimate shipping company hoping you will click on their tracking link without thinking about where it’s going. This will take you to a site where you may be asked to verify your personal information or download spyware onto your computer.
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Tip 4 — Fake purchase notifications. Scammers love sending out fake purchase notifications because many people will immediately follow up on the unknown purchase by clicking a link in the email that goes to a login screen on a site that looks like a legitimate one. They get your user name and password that way and then have access to your account on the real site, and potentially others if you frequently use the same passwords.
Example: You get a notification from the Apple Store saying that someone has made an app purchase for $10 and telling you that you have 24 hours to dispute the claim. You don’t recognize the app, decide to dispute it, and immediately click on the link in the email which takes you to a fake login screen for your Apple account. You enter your information and click submit which drops you onto a fake page where you will continue pointlessly to search for the purchase information. Regardless they now have your actual login information for your official Apple account.
Tip 5 – Don’t download unknown apps from websites or message links. Always go to the official Apple or Google app stores to make purchases or start new downloads. You could be adding malicious tracking and spy software to your computer or mobile device. Make sure that the publisher is verified and the app isn’t asking for more permissions than it needs.
Tip 6 — Watch out for fake messages from banks or other financial institutions. Some scammers phish by sending out emails with a bank name hoping to hit someone who uses that bank. The emails typically mention something about fraudulent activity, and ask you to confirm purchase information, or they ask you to log into your account or call them to resolve an issue. Never click on a link or call a phone number sent to you in an email or message. Always use the banks official phone numbers and site by going their directly.