10 Ways to Prevent Holiday Shopping Scams

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The winter holidays: a time for festivities and … fraud-tivities.

Gift Card Grab

Never, ever enter your credit card or other sensitive information to claim a gift card that comes via email.

Never Buy Over Public WiFi

Shopping over public WiFi means your credit card, bank account or login data could get picked up by a cyber thief. Use a VPN.

Coupon Cautious

If a coupon deal seems too good to be true, then assume it is. End of story. Next.

Password Housekeeping

  • Change the passwords for all your sensitive accounts.
  • No two passwords should be the same.
  • Passwords should be a random salad of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols – at least 12 total.
  • A password manager can ease the hassle.

Two Step Verification

  • A login attempt will send a one-time numerical code to the user’s phone.
  • The user must type that code into the account login field to gain access.
  • Prevents unauthorized logins unless the unauthorized user has your phone AND login credentials.

Think Before You Click

  • Never click links that arrive in your in-box that supposedly linking to a reputable retailer’s site announcing a fantastic sale.
  • Kohl’s, Macy’s, Walmart and other giant retailers don’t do this. And if they do, ignore them.
  • So who does this? Scammers. They hope you’ll click the link because it’ll download a virus.
  • The other tactic is that the link will take you to a mock spoofed site of the retailer, lure you into making a purchase, and then a thief will steal your credit card data.

Bank and Credit Card Security

  • Find out what kind of security measures your bank has and then use them such as caps on charges or push notifications.
  • Consider using a virtual credit card number that allows a one-time purchase. It temporarily replaces your actual credit card number and is worthless to a thief.

Job Scams

Forget the online ad that promises $50/hour or $100 for completing a survey. If you really need money then get a real job.

Monthly Self-Exam

For financial health: Every month review all your financial statements to see if there is any suspicious activity. Even an unknown charge for $1.89 is suspicious, because sometimes, crooks make tiny purchases to gage the account holder’s suspicion index. Report these immediately.

Https vs. http

  • The “s” at the end means the site is secure.
  • Do all your shopping off of https sites.
  • In line with this, update your browser as well.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.