Christmas Scams

Since the Christmas season is coming soon, many people are scrambling to get the best gifts for their friends and family. Most people have turned to online shopping due to its convenience, but the online marketplace is often a haven for spammers and scammers who want to get your info. Although most people have realized how to spot fake e-mails and offers, there are still many people out there who should learn how to identify a scam when they see it. In this post, I will explain the most common ways that scammers attempt to obtain personal information, and the ways that shoppers can protect against this. The bottom line when it comes to an online offer: If an offers seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The most common form of Christmas scams involve some sort of gift certificate, promise of free merchandise, or charity websites. These links often take the user to a fake website which will attempt to steal personal information. These websites are called phishing sites, and many of these pages look like legitimate businesses or charities. Some sites will ask the user to sing up for an account using their an email address and password. This is problematic because many people use the same password for different accounts. The real danger comes when a user enters their credit card info on one of these pages, only to have it stolen by the host of the site.

The easiest way to avoid these scams is by sticking to reputable and trusted sites such as Ebay or Amazon. Stay away from sites that offer free products or prices that seem too good to be true. Customers should also check for a “trustmark” on the website address that ensures the page is reputable. All secure sites will begin with https (s for secure) instead of the normal http. Another thing to remember while shopping this holiday season is that online orders should never be placed on an unsecure network. Information sent over unsecure networks can easily be stolen, so never buy products in areas with unprotected connections.

Along with these classic phishing scams, the holidays also provide an opportunity to take advantage of social network users. Users of Facebook and Twitter have been tricked into giving up social security numbers and passwords with promises of well paying work-at-home jobs and free gift cards. One of the most recent scams takes the user to a Twitter look-alike and asks the user to sign in. Once they obtain the users login, they are free to spam the same message to your friends on twitter. Attackers are also targeting people through text messages and instant messages, making these scams one of the most common during the holiday season.