The holiday season which is conventionally a period of joy, celebration and gift-giving, is also a target of cybercriminals who view it as the chance to take advantage of people. With the rise of e-commerce and the prevalence of online communication, there is a higher risk of becoming a victim of cyber scams.
This article will provide you with the information and resources you need to protect yourself against these holiday cyber scams.
Holiday Cyber Scams Explained
Holiday cyber scams refer to fraudulent activities or trickery used by internet criminals to commit fraud or steal personal data of unsuspicious victims. These scams are numerous and can be in the form of phishing emails, fake websites, malware attacks and social engineering tricks. These scams are more during the holidays because of the increased activities on the internet and the benefits they offer to fraudsters.
Why Holidays Are Prime Time for Cyber Scammers
With more online purchases, gift-giving and traveling during the holiday season, it presents cybercriminals with a goldmine. Fraudsters take advantage of the increased emotions and urgency of the season as well as the fact that people are more trusting and less guarded. So why are holidays one of the best seasons to commit cyber scams?
- Heightened Internet Usage: The number of individuals conducting their shopping online has escalated, hence transactions and accounts have become more lucrative targets to hackers.
- Time Crunch and Stress: Time pressure and the desire to get gifts and use holiday offers may result in impulsive decisions and individuals become more vulnerable to frauds.
- Generosity and Trust: The holiday season and the spirit of generosity can make people more trusting and scammers bank on this to conduct fraudulent charity drives and emotional blackmail.
- Traveling and Posting Information: When people post on social media that they are going to travel the scammers can utilize this information to target people.
- Phishing and Impersonation: Fraudsters can coverup as legitimate companies or charities as well as friends and relatives so as to gain trust and steal personal information.
Most Common Holiday Cyber Scams
Learning about the most typical holiday cyber scams is the first step to staying safe and keeping your close ones safe. We will explore the different types of scams that are common in this period and provide you with insights to keep you safe in the digital world.
Phishing Emails & Messages
Phishing is a fraudulent activity, wherein scammers utilize emails or messages which may seem to have been sent by reputable entities, including banks, retailers or even the government. The goal of these communications is to deceive recipients into providing sensitive information, including passwords, credit card numbers or social security numbers.
Seasonal Phishing – Holiday Tactics
Phishing scams are more advanced and common during the holidays. The fraudsters utilize the holiday spirit to text messages that look like popular online shopping websites stating that they have special deals or free products. There is often an element of urgency in the emails and they instruct the victim to do something, either by clicking on a malicious link or download an attachment which is actually malware.
Protective Measures
- Check the Source: Before clicking on a link or providing personal information, examine the email address of the sender and be on the lookout of misspellings or language strange-ness.
- Seek Secure Websites: When entering any personal information on a web site, look to see that the site is HTTPS enabled with a padlock icon beside the address bar.
- Security Software: Maintain your antivirus and anti-malware programs up-to-date to avoid being a victim of phishing.
Fake Online Stores & Deals
Online purchases are expected to increase during the holiday season which is why it is the best period to attract unsuspecting online shoppers to fake online stores. Such scam websites will usually promote unbelievable prices on trending products, attracting customers to purchase them urgently.
How to Spot Fake Stores
Fake online stores might not provide ample contact details, their websites might be unprofessionally created or their goods might be priced far below market. Also, they might not accept commonly used payment options and demand wire transfer or gift cards.
Staying Safe
- Investigate the Seller: Look at reviews and ratings on non-company websites and seek red flags, including the absence of customer reviews.
- Safe Payment Options: Pay with a credit card or safe payment services which provide coverage to the buyer.
- Check Return Policies: Before purchasing, verify the store has a clear and fair return policy.
Gift Card Scams
Gift cards are a welcome gift option over the holidays and also scammers are also eyeing them. Scammers typically generate fake gift cards or utilize bots to buy genuine ones and sell them at a discount.
Recognizing Scams
Fraudsters can also send texts stating that you have won a gift card or they can provide gift cards as prizes in nonexistent competitions. They can also create websites that look like the real gift card sellers in order to steal your details.
Protective Strategies
- Buy gift cards (from reputable sources): Purchase gift cards through trusted sources either on their official websites or on authorized stores.
- Examine Cards Thoroughly: Before purchasing a card, look at it to determine whether it is tampered with, e.g. has scratches or a different PIN.
- Register Gift Cards: Gift cards may be registered with the issuer so as to track and insure your purchase.
Charity Scams
Charity frauds take advantage of the season of giving. False charities are organized by scammers in order to receive donations, usually after some natural disasters or other tragedies.
Fake Charities: How to Identify Them?
Be suspect of charities whose names are similar to well-known organizations. Fake charities will typically lack a physical address, will often use generic email addresses and may be able to encourage you to donate immediately.
Safe Giving Practices
- Do Research Before Giving: Look up the charity evaluation websites to find out more about the legitimacy of a particular organization.
- Donate Wisely: Give to reputable charities directly instead of via third parties.
- Be Suspicious of Unsolicited Requests: Legitimate charities do not normally make donation requests via social media or email.
Travel Scams
Travel scams are common as many individuals plan holiday vacations. Fake travel deals, booking scams and rental property fraud are aimed at travelers by scammers.
How to Spot Travel Scams
Be cautious of the offers which appear to be outstanding, like the luxury rooms at a very low price. Fake booking websites can also make off with your personal and payment details.
Travel Safely
- Book With Credible Sources: Make your reservation using reliable travel websites and agencies.
- Ensure Payments: Seek sites with secure payment methods; never enter your credit card details on unverified websites. Check your credit card bills carefully to detect any fraudulent charges.
- Authenticate Property Owners: In case of renting a house, authenticate the owner and make sure that the listing exists on a credible site.
Social Media Scams
The holidays make social media platforms a busy hive, thus a prime location for scams. On social media, scammers distribute false giveaways, lottery frauds and phishing links.
Identifying Social Media Scams
Watch out: posts promising free gifts or prizes in return of personal information. Fraudsters usually make counterfeit profiles to win confidence and get access to personal information.
Remaining Safe on the Internet
- Minimize Personal Data: Limit personal information on social media. Turn on privacy settings and restrict the viewing of personal information.
- Confirm Before Participating: Before joining any contest or availing any offer, do check the official site of the organization to ascertain its authenticity.
- Make Privacy Settings: Make your social media privacy settings change to private and review your privacy settings regularly.
Delivery Scams
Delivery scams capitalize on the joy of holiday deliveries. Fraudsters pretend to be delivery agents to get access into houses or steal packages right off doorsteps.
How to Identify Delivery Scams
Be wary of unsolicited messages about problems with your delivery or having to pay to have it redelivered. Some fraudsters will even come as far as knocking on the door to deliver non-existent packages.
Securing Your Shipments
- Confirm Missed Deliveries: When you have a missed delivery you can contact the carrier company by phone and inquire about the location of your package.
- Use Secure Delivery Options: Make use of delivery services that have real-time tracking or need a signature.
- Be Wary of Unsolicited Assistance: Never open the door to people who say they are there to help with delivery of packages.
How to Identify a Cyber Scam
The knowledge of red flags of the scam will help to keep you and your dear ones safe. Some of the key red flags include the following:
- Urgent or Emotional Requests: Watch out of messages that create a sense of urgency or emotion such as the threat to close accounts or appeal to sympathy of a cause.
- Dubious Links and Attachments: Do not click on links or open attachments received from unfamiliar or surprising senders.
- Unsolicited Requests of Personal Info: Genuine businesses will not usually request sensitive details through email or message.
- Too-Good-to-Be-True Offers: If it looks like something that is too good to be true, then it probably is. To verify the legitimacy of deals, go to official websites.
- Bad Grammar and Spelling: A lot of phishing emails and messages will have grammatical mistakes or typos and this can be one indicator.
- Deformed Sender Addresses: Look for anomalies in the sender’s email address including minor differences in domain names.
- Gift Card Payment Requests: exercise caution when responding to requests to be paid in gift cards as it is one of the tricks that scammers employ.
Steps to Protect Yourself
Now that you have a decent idea of what cyber scams are and how they may present themselves, it is time to explore what you can do to keep yourself safe this holiday season.
Strengthen Your Cyber Security
- Strong and Unique Passwords: Put powerful and unique passwords on different accounts. Use letters, numbers and symbols. It can also be a good idea to use a password manager that will allow you to keep them safely organized.
- Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Implement 2FA is a secondary protection mechanism that makes sure that you must authenticate your identity through a second method, e.g. text message code, in addition to your password.
- Maintain Software and Device Updates: Always keep your operating system and antivirus software up-to-date as well as every day application to protect against the latest security threats.
Be Wary of Emails and Messages
- Confirm Email Senders: Examine the email address of the sender and check whether it contains some anomaly that might be a telltale sign of a phish. Be caution on generic greetings or spelling errors.
- Don’t Click on Links in Suspicious Emails: Before clicking on a link, hover over it to see the real web address. In case the link looks suspicious or is different to that of the destination, do not click on them.
- Recheck Offers: Where an email or a message claim to be giving a great offer, visit the company official site or have a working contact number and call the company to verify the offer.
Online Shopping Securely
- Secure Websites: The padlock icon and the “https” in the address bar are the attributes that will help you to define that the site is secure. One should avoid making purchases using the public Wi-Fi without a virtual private network (VPN).
- Research Retailers: Use reputable retailers. Resort to customer feedback and ratings to get a feel of how reliable an less recognizable retailer is.
- Check Financial Statements: Ensure that your bank account and credit card statements are valid by checking the documents on a regular basis. Instantly reporting any suspicious situation.
Secure Personal Data
- Minimize Posting Personal Information Online: Be sensitive on the amount of personal information that you share on social media and other websites. Scammers can utilize this information in order to craft convincing phishing messages.
- Privacy Settings: On social media, utilize privacy setting to control the appearance of your post and personal information.
- Be Cautious of Social Engineering: Unsolicited phone calls, text messages or email that ask for personal or financial information are to be suspected. Using the official channels, verify the particulars of the person who is connecting to you.
Protect Your Apparatus
- Security Software: Recommended antivirus and anti-malware software should be installed to make sure that your devices do not suffer as a result of a malicious attack.
- Data Backup: Valuable data should be backed up regularly to an external hard disk or cloud drive so that the ransomware attack does not result in their loss.
- Be Suspicious of Free Wi-Fi: Public Wi-Fi network is not to be relied on with sensitive transactions. As required, encrypt your internet connection with a VPN.
Educate Yourself
- Remain Educated: Be updated on the latest trends in online frauds and Internet security threats. Consciousness is one of the useful tools in preventing scams on the Internet.
- Spread Awareness: Educate family and friends on Cyber scams and ways to stay safer when they are online.
- Report Scams: If you have become a victim of a scam, then report the same to the relevant authorities, i.e., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States or Action Fraud in the UK.
What to Do If You’ve Been Scammed
Even by being careful, one can become a victim of a cyber scam. To effectively respond, do the following:
- Reset Your Passwords: Reset the passwords of the affected accounts as soon as possible.
- Notify Financial Institutions: Notify your bank or credit card company in case your financial details have been stolen.
- Disclose the Incident: Report the incident to the relevant law enforcement agency and may be to any compromised companies.
- Monitor Accounts: Closely watch your financial statements and online accounts to suspect any unusual activity.
- Consider Credit Monitoring: In the case that your identity has been stolen, it is recommended that you sign up to a credit monitoring service where you can keep track of any illegal uses of your information.
Educate Others Around You
Education is a powerful tool when combating cyber scams. By informing the people you know about the risks and safety measures, you can make the virtual environment a little bit safer. Some ways of educating others include the following:
- Share Resources: Share articles, guides and videos about the most popular scams and how to identify them.
- Hold Workshops: Organize some workshops or webinars during which you can discuss the best practices related to cybersecurity and answer any questions.
- Safe Practices: Promote complicated passwords, secure browsing and updated software.
- Discuss Real-Life Examples: Speak about the scams which have occurred in real life to provide the importance of staying vigilant.
- Be Supportive: Be supportive towards those who are less familiar to technology and assist them to turn on security settings on their devices.
Conclusion
The holiday season is meant to be enjoyed and not spent worrying about possible cyber scams. It is possible to greatly prevent the risk of you becoming a victim by being aware of the types of holiday cyber scams that are perpetrated in this article.
Be alert, inform yourself and others and have a safe and happy holiday season. It is important to remember that cyber scams, like most things in life, are best countered with a mix of awareness, preparedness and proactive actions. Be safe on the internet and have a happy holiday!
