Stop and Think Before Shopping and Traveling This Holiday Season
The holidays bring shopping, travel, and celebrations, but also create opportunities for scammers. Cybercriminals use the busy season to trick people into sharing information or money before they realize something is wrong. Understanding how these scams work is the best way to get ahead of them. Take a look at the most common scams appearing during the holidays and tips to keep your personal information secure.
Holiday Gift Card Scams
Holiday gift card scams are fake promotions. They’re run by scammers, who advertise that you'll get a free gift card for filling out a quick verification form.
These verification forms start off simple, but progressively ask the victim for more information, streaming any data entered back to the scammer in real time. By the time the victim realizes they've fallen for a scam and close the form, it's too late. Any data they've entered will have been captured and stored by the scammer.
To avoid falling for this type of scammer, remain wary of any promotion that's offering something for free, particularly during the holiday season. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
Holiday Party Scams
Holiday party scams can occur on any holiday, and they involve the delivery of malicious messages that appear to contain an invite to an upcoming party. The invite may appear to be coming from a friend, family member, or workplace.
Holiday Charity Scams
Holiday charity scams use fake charities set up by scammers, which have the sole intent of tricking victims into voluntarily donating money to the fake charity, thinking they're supporting a good cause. In reality, the money is going into the scammer’s bank account.
Typically, scammers rely on social media, search engines, or paid advertisements to promote their fake charity. A complex web of fake domains, websites, and social media profiles is used to try and add legitimacy.
Holiday E-Card Scams
Holiday e-card scams are a technique used by cybercriminals to trick victims into clicking on links or downloading attachments in unsolicited emails or SMS messages. Cybercriminals will often try to masquerade as a trusted friend, colleague, or organization to increase the effectiveness of these scams.
Often, phishing links and attachments are used to compromise the victim's online accounts, either through the execution of malware or the capturing of credentials. All it takes from an attacker is a fake email address or phone number to perform these attacks, making them widespread and commonly confused with spam or junk messages.
The best way to protect yourself from holiday e-card scams is to always remain wary of unsolicited messages that directly or indirectly ask you to perform an action, such as downloading an attachment or clicking a link. If you're ever suspicious, err on the side of caution and don't do what's being asked.
Fake Online Retail Store Scams
Fake online retail store scams are common scams used by cybercriminals looking to make a quick buck. During the peak of the holiday season, when items are selling out and a shopping frenzy is underway, scammers will offer deals that are too good to be true.
For example, you might be trying to buy a new lawn mower but your preferred brand is all sold out. However, mysteriously, there's a store that's selling them at a cheaper price than the standard retail price. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Fake Travel Site Scams
The holiday season is one of the busiest travel periods. Trips can get expensive as lots of people try to get good flight tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars. That means scammers are ready to pounce with travel booking scams, using fake travel websites and too-good-to-be-true prices for holiday travel.
When you’re making travel reservations online, it’s best to:
- Use sites that you already know and trust.
- Double-check your URLs to make sure you’re not on a spoofing site.
- Check to see if the site has a physical address and that their customer support phone number works.
- Read online reviews of the travel sites to see if other people have gotten scammed.
Misleading Social Media Ads
As more and more social media sites add selling to their platforms, the potential for fraud has increased along with other social media threats. Fake ads on social media might look real, but they could end up taking you to a spoofed site or trying to pressure you into giving up personal information in exchange for better deals.
To check if an ad is real, visit the social media account of the company in question and see if it aligns with any specials they’ve posted about. If it’s a legit sale, use the links in their posts or bio to navigate more safely to their web store. If you find a fake ad, report it and block the account.
Brushing Scams
Brushing scams sound like a victimless crime — a company sends you a bunch of free items that you get to keep—but it could be an early sign of identity theft. Do not scan QR code if on a gift. For these scammers to send you goods, they must know your name and address. While they might have found that information on a people search site, they may have found your info through a data breach.
If you receive any unwanted packages, contact the marketplace (usually Amazon) to let them know you received items you didn’t order. Check your bank and credit card statements for charges you didn’t make.
Fake Contests and Giveaways
Businesses love offering shoppers deals around the holidays. It can help increase traffic to their online stores and improve sales. However, it’s important to recognize when an email or text advertising a contest or giveaway is too good to be true.
If you aren’t sure whether a contest or giveaway is real, don’t click links in emails or text messages about them. Instead, visit the company’s site directly or via your favorite search engine. If they list a giveaway on their site, it’s probably safe to proceed.
If you can’t find it on their site or social media profiles, it might be a scammer trying to get you to visit a fake website where you could be exposed to malware or tricked into entering personal information on a form that could result in your identity being stolen.
You can also search for the company name and add “giveaway scam” to see if other people have received similar messages and got scammed.
Too-Good-To-Be-True Scams
A too-good-to-be-true scam can take almost any form, but it will always leave you surprised at how great a price or included perks are. This surprise should be the first sign that you might be dealing with a scam. If a site is advertising a product you know to be much more expensive than the listed price, beware. The listing could be trying to lure you in to install malware on your device, steal your personal information, or pull a bait-and-switch scam.
Tip: Look up reviews of the site, and don’t give in to any high-pressure tactics (like timers on discounts) until you know that the site is legitimate.
Delivery Text Scams
Delivery text scams are one of the newer and trickier scams you might encounter during the holiday season. Out of nowhere, you might get a text informing you that a delivery has been delayed or can’t be made until you verify some information.
These messages usually include a shortened URL or phone number. If you click or call, they may ask you to enter some of your personal information to verify that you’re the real recipient of the package.
If you provide that information, you’ve just increased the likelihood that your identity could be stolen or that you’ll see a bunch of charges you didn’t make on your credit card bill.
If you receive a text about a delivery, check to see if it aligns with a package you’ve ordered. If it could be legitimate, visit the site where you made the purchase, instead of clicking the link, and check the tracking from there.
What to do if you get scammed:
If you think you’ve been scammed, work quickly to limit the damage.
Here’s how:
- Secure your bank + credit card accounts: Change your passwords, and log out of all active sessions on your computer.
- Secure your devices: Clear your history and caches, make sure your operating system and apps are updated, and run a malware scan using antivirus software
- Report it: Contact your financial institutions to inform them of what happened. Include as much information as possible about how the scam worked and whether or not any money was stolen. Depending on the extent of the scam (and if any money was lost), you might need to contact the police to file a report.
- Keep an eye on your accounts: After a scam, it’s vital to make sure every cent is accounted for and that every purchase is one you made. Depending on the kind of information the scammer obtained, you might want to lock or freeze your credit report.
If you have discovered fraud on your Western State Bank account or debit card, please contact us immediately at 877-846-9345.