Avoiding Holiday Scams

TrainMyParent.com
Oct 14
4 min read

Wintertime woman carrying a present. — Lets stay safe this holiday season!

With the start of the holiday season comes the next wave of online scams. Let's face it,

holiday shopping and traveling can be frustrating enough, and the last thing we need is to also deal with falling victim to a scam. Lets take a look at some of the typical holiday scams, and what to look for so that we can avoid being caught by the criminals.

Charity Scams: Tis the season of giving! And many of us like to contribute to our favorite charities at this time of year. Scammers take advantage of that increased donation activity by sending out fundraising campaigns that look like they are for a well known charity, but really link to fraudulent websites. The URLs they use look very close to the actual URLs of the charities they mimic. If you are interested in donating to your favorite charity, do not respond to an email or text campaign. Instead, go directly to the charity to give your donation. Use a trusty search engine to find the correct URL if you are not 100% sure of the charity's address. Make sure that the charity is reputable and will spend your donations responsibly. Never donate via wire transfer services (like Zelle or Western Union) or with gift cards.

Gift Card Scams: We get it...finding the perfect gift for a friend or colleague is not always the easiest thing to do. Many of us rely on gift cards to fulfill a gifting obligation when not getting good ideas for the perfect gift, and there are countless places to get these gift cards. However, scammers have several ways to take advantage of you and your gift cards. The first is through a fraudulent sale of a gift card that is totally fake. Only purchase gift cards from trusted sources, such as going into the physical store itself, through your credit card company (many offer gift card options for points redemption) or other trusty source. The second scam involves the criminal scratching off the gift card PIN or manipulating the card, and replacing it back into the blank card stock. Once a victim purchases the gift card and adds money to it, the scammer can redeem its value because it already has the PIN. When purchasing physical gift cards, always examine the card to make sure the protective features and scratch-off PIN have not been manipulated at all. If it has, notify the store manager and move on to a different gift idea. Finally, be cautious of any stores that require you to pay with a gift card. This is one of a scammer's preferred ways to get paid, as the gift card transaction is often untraceable. Keep your gift card receipts, and contact the store directly if you think you have detected any fraudulent activity.

Wrapped holiday presents — Will the gifts arrive in time?

Shipping Scams: Every year, more and more is purchased online and delivered to our front door by a shipping carrier, whether it is UPS, the US Postal Service, Amazon, or another delivery service. Criminals try to take advantage of the season by sending out fraudulent shipping notices via email, text or even through phone calls. Even if you are expecting packages, remember not to click on any links or buttons, scan QR codes, or provide personal information to the shipping companies. Instead, if you are expecting a package and want to check its status, go directly to the store's website or the shipper's tracking page, and verify the tracking information there.

Year End Financial Scams: There typically is a lot of finance, health insurance, and tax-related activity at the end of the year and start of the next year's tax preparation season, and criminals use this increase in activity to help distract us as they try to get access to our information and assets. Be wary of year-end requests to confirm financial information, unsolicited people asking for information related to your health insurance, tax information, or other requests. If you think a request might be legitimate, do your due diligence and contact the tax planner or your investment advisor directly via telephone. Do not send any sensitive information via email, which is like sending it on a postcard that anyone can see.

Holiday Promotions and Contest Scams: We all love a good deal, and the scammers know it. They love to use this time of year to send out offers that appear too good to be true, such as coupons for free or highly discounted items, discounted gift cards or travel vouchers, and other enticing offers. These are perfect phishing platforms, in which the scammers send you to a spoofed website to obtain your personal or login information. Trust your gut! Remember that, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is a scam.

A person using an ATM machine — Cover the keypad when entering your PIN

ATM or Credit Card Skimming Scams: Not all holiday scams occur via text and email.

Sometimes a physical approach is used by these criminals, such as when they place skimmers on credit card machines or ATMs. A skimmer often consists of an electronic device or tag attached to or glued over a standard credit card reader or ATM machine's card reader, and will copy your credit card or bank information and forward it to the criminal. Be careful when filling up at the pump, or when using an ATM, to verify that the machine's card reader has not been tampered with or has a sticker over it, or if there is a camera in an unusual place. And, always cover the keypad when entering your PIN so the camera or other passers-by cannot see your PIN.

The holiday season should be joyful for all, and the last thing we want to do is to deal with being a victim of a scam. Following these rules and using good judgement can go a long way towards preventing the scammers from getting our information.

Learn how you can protect yourself or your family by enrolling in the Complete Internet Security Basics and Phishing Awareness Course for Parents on TrainMyParent.com

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