Animated Christmas card, letter sent by Santa Claus himself, gourmet baskets to win… Here are the 3 worst scams to avoid, which often take place during the holidays.
Did you think the scammers were going to spare you at Christmas time? It’s bad to know them! During the holiday season, consumers make many purchases in stores, but also online. For criminals, the Internet is the ideal hunting ground for spotting new prey and stealing their personal and banking information. The company CyberGhost VPN has precisely looked into the worst online scams circulating during the end-of-year holidays. And the least we can say is that scammers have no qualms about fooling you, even if it means playing with the magic of Christmas. Here are the 3 main schemes that you absolutely must be wary of:
1. Adorable animated Christmas cards online
We have all already been touched on the Internet or on the networks by an animated Christmas card, showing for example adorable kittens disguised in festive outfits. The animation is so successful that we sometimes rush to share it with our loved ones via a text message or an email. Except that a scammer could potentially be hiding behind it. Indeed, once shared, the recipient may receive a message or a link to click on to view the card in question, and it is by pressing that they unknowingly download malware onto their phone or computer. computer. Consequence: the thugs obtain all his information and demand a ransom to recover it.
2. Services for receiving a letter from Santa Claus
Letters from Santa Claus are not immune to scams either! Some fraudulent sites, which claim to be charities, offer families the opportunity to send their children a letter written by Santa Claus himself in exchange for a certain sum of money. The entire procedure takes place online, which means that the scammers have access to your banking details as well as your personal information (name, postal address, etc.). Obviously, you never receive the purchased letter, and your data is used either to extract even more money from you, or to sell it on the dark web.
3. Free Christmas baskets
Receiving a free gourmet basket for Christmas may interest more than one person. Some brands offer this type of offer to build customer loyalty. But online crooks don’t do it for the same reasons. Some Christmas hampers offered for free can also turn out to be a scam. Generally, you receive an SMS, an email or a message on social networks informing you of your win. To claim it, you are asked to enter your personal details, and in some cases your banking details to cover delivery costs. But in reality, cybercriminals use you to steal your identity, or even steal money. And here again, the “free” basket passes you by…
How to protect your online purchases this Christmas?
To avoid being scammed by this type of ad during the Christmas holidays, the company CyberGhost advises users to:
- Use reliable sites, identifiable by their URL which begins with “https” or which is marked with a small padlock;
- Check site reviews on forums in advance;
- Do not open any links that come from unknown sources;
- Use another email address to make online purchases;
- Use secure payment methods;
- Monitor your transactions on your bank account.
It is also important to pay attention to the passwords you use to log into your accounts and make transactions. The ideal is to never use the same password on e-commerce sites and to choose a code that is long and complex enough so that it is difficult enough for crooks to decipher.