The Christmas holidays are just matter of time. People around the world will focus on spreading the holiday cheer, by finding the Christmas gift and sending a Christmas card and so on. But you have to be careful and aware that there are some people with malicious intent will take a chance to scam you.
As McAfee report that they already highlighted 12 scams that you should be aware this time of year. There many of people that will scam you for money or they would like infected your computer. You do not want these happening do you? The fact is more money will comes up when it is Christmas holiday, people are spending more time online, they’re paying more bills, so the bad guys see it as a chance to get money from these people.
These are the highlights of The 12 scams of Christmas that you should avoid this time of the year:
1. Charity Scams
You will get an email that looks like originate from a legit charity. In here you’ll be asked to visit the charity
and make donation. And the next things is the bad guys will make a move and steal your credit card information and your identity. If you want really to donate your many just visit the charity’s website and do not click a link if you received a spam message.
2. Fake Invoice Scams
The bad guys will send out fake invoices and delivery notifications that seem originally from UPS or FEDEX or the postal service. The notification says that the UPS or FEDEX or whatever tried to send a package to your address but failed. Once again you will be ask to confirm your address and provide your credit card info, cause someone has to pay for it.
3. Friend Request On Social Networking Sites Scams
You will get an email that looks like a usual friend request from Facebook for example. If you receive and click the link than you will be taken to a malware spreading site. Or you will be taken to the site that looks like Facebook, but on the other hand is a phishing that try to steal your login credentials.
4. Holiday Gift Card Scams
Aware of any e-card you receive, Holiday e-cards usually used to spreading malware, popups, and junk advertising. If you receive any e-card make sure that it comes from someone you know. And more important thing is if you want to send out holiday e-cards, use a reputable service, otherwise you might getting infecting your friend and yourself.
5. Luxury Gifts Scams
There are three point if you receive this scam:
1. The link contain a malware spreading site
2. If you decided to purchase this luxury gift , then you will never be honored
3. If the gift delivered to you, chances are the product is a fake.
6. Shopping Holiday Scams
If you gonna to online shopping make sure do it in the secure sites. If you are using a public hotspot, make sure that the wireless network is secure, your security network is update and make sure your computer firewall is on.
7. Christmas Media Scams
During the Christmas people will exciting to look for festive media such as Christmas music, carol lyrics, holiday graphics, etc. The bad guts see this and will set up a fraudulent or fake Christmas related site and set up fake search result to get you to a fraudulent site.
8. Job Search Scams
Be careful to accept job offer or working at home scheme. Fake site promises to you a quick money scheme but they will ask for money up front. If you pay then you gonna gift your credit card information to the bad guy. And they’re will be able to misuse it.
9. Fake Auction Scams
During the Christmas holiday number of fake auction sites sees a great increase. If you want to get in to auction site such as eBay, be sure you’re actually on eBay not fake eBay.
10. Password Scams
In this case, the insolent guys will plant key loggers to record keystrokes and steal your password. And they’re can access to your account banking and your email account.
11. Email Banking Scams
This scam is the same as phishing attempt. You will get an email that claim from your bank. The email includes a link that asked you to click and access your online banking account. If you click the link then you will directed to a phishing site, not even close you’re site.
12. Ransomware Scams
A vicious malware may infected your system and lock down your data files. The malware will ask you to pay a certain amount of money to regain access to your data.
Maybe still a lot of scam mode out there consider many bad guys that want to take an advantage during this Christmas holiday. So be careful and Merry Christmas.
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