It’s Nearly Christmas.
The festive season is a busy time of year for scammers of all kinds as people buy presents, food for visitors, decorations, more food and drink than usual and much more.
Pre and post Christmas discount sales are likely to push the market into overdrive even with Coronavirus still around.
Fake Online Shops
Scammers set up fake website shops offering whatever products are most popular. They usually copy the sales text and pictures from genuine websites to make their site look real, but if you buy then you’re unlikely to get anything and you will lose the money. Often they will also sell your credit card details to other scammers.
Always make sure you‘re on a genuine company website before buying anything.
E-cards
Christmas brings lots of e-cards – likely to be even more than usual in Coronavirus days. Fake notifications for e-cards are a common means by which scammers trick you into clicking on a link that can lead to malware being installed on your computer without your knowledge.
Even if the card appears to come from a reputable organisation such as Hallmark – be very careful.
To be sure, if a card is genuine,. You need to go to the apparent sender’s website e.g. hallmark.com and see if there is a card waiting for you.
If there’s no card waiting for you, the email you got was sent by a scammer.
Phishing Scams
These are very common and take many forms – the essential part of a phishing scam is to get you to provide your login and password for some reason and once the scammer has that information they can take control of that account and any others where you use the same login and password.
Unsolicited emails that tell you to click a link are always dodgy – so be careful.
If the message tells you there is a problem of some kind e.g. your account has been compromised or that you have won a prize then contact the relevant organisation directly – not via information in the message.
Never click a link in an unsolicited message until you are sure it is safe.
Charity Scams.
Many charities are struggling this year as lock downs have reduced their fund raising dramatically and they need all of the help they can get. However, scammers continue to invent fake charities or use the names of genuine charities and keep the money for themselves.
They may claim celebrity endorsement or official recognition or anything to make themselves believable.
If you want to donate to charity then donate in person or go to the correct website directly – do not click on links in messages.
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