The Holidays are a wonderful time for everyone to be together and spend time with their families. Everyone wants to make sure their loved ones receive the perfect gift! Scammers know this too and are not afraid to take advantage. There are many tactics that scammers can take during this time of year to target unsuspecting victims through various methods such as fraudulent websites, fake delivery text messages, tampered gift cards and many more. Let’s dive into some of the common tactics to be aware of as you make your final Christmas preparations.
Fraudulent Websites
After looking for that certain gift for days you finally found it and this site is even cheaper than the others! You go to check out to ensure that you secure your item before they too sale out. You enter in all your payment and shipping information and hit place order, but you receive an error. The website says card declined. You re-enter your information and again you receive the same error. While this error keeps appearing on your device it only took one submission for the scammer to receive your card information and your personal info. While this scam may appear, frightening there are many steps you can take to ensure you protect yourself on the web. Double check the website name and make sure everything looks correct. If there are misspellings or additional words in the domain then odds are there is potential for fraud. If you have doubts about an item on a well-known page, search the main home page for the site and search for the item again through this channel to ensure you are purchasing from a legitimate source. More often than not, if a site is promising a top-of-the-line product for a heavy discount while other retailers are offering full price or a small discount, there is potential for fraud.
“There Was an Issue with Your Package”
At some point you have probably received a text message from a large retailer or shipping provider saying that there was an issue with your package. In this scam they are impersonating these companies in an attempt to cause panic about an order to get you to click on a hazardous link. Most of the time these texts or emails are from Amazon, UPS, USPS or similar companies. They are worded in a way that causes a sense of urgency and often times will say “Confirm your order at the link to prevent your order from being cancelled.” During the new age Holiday season, most of our shopping is done online and these text scams make most of us a viable target. To ensure the legitimacy of these messages never click on the link in the text or email and confirm the shipping status through the providers website. If you do click on the link, you will be prompted to login or resubmit payment information. This tactic will allow the scammer to gain access to your accounts and payment method. Remember that a retailer will not ask you to re-login or submit additional payments for an existing order.
Gift Card Scams
A popular gift option and stocking stuffer for some time now has been gift cards. With the vast options for online shopping there is a gift card for most retail stores now. Scammers are taking advantage of the growing popularity by targeting unpurchased gift cards in stores. They do this by tampering with the barcodes on the back of the card. The scammer will carefully place a sticker over the barcode so that when you go to make the purchase the credit actually goes to the fraudster and not to your gift card balance. There are several methods to combat this scam. When you select your gift card from the stack examine the barcode to ensure that no sticker has been placed over it. Also, be sure that the packaging has not been torn or tampered with. Many gift cards now have a paper tab placed over the card to be removed at check out. Ensure that this tab is intact before purchasing.
The Christmas season is a wonderful time for everyone, and we want you to stay safe and worry free when shopping for your loved ones. Stay safe from the fraudsters and the grinches trying to steal your Christmas joy and your information along the way. If you feel that you have fallen victim to one of these scams, contact your financial institution right away to help reduce any damage that has been made.
