Top 5 Holiday Season Scams

This holiday season could be the most wonderful time of year for cyber criminals, according to digital identity company ThreatMetrix. In a new report, the firm reveals that it has detected a 25% jump in attacks! As always, knowledge is the key to avoiding a scam.

Here are The Top 5 Holiday Season Scams to avoid!

1. Black Friday/Cyber Monday Specials 
This time of year, online scams use a variety of lures to get unsuspecting buyers to click on links or open attachments. Bad guys build complete copies of well-known sites, send emails promoting great deals, sell products and take credit card information – but never deliver the goods. Sites that seem to have incredible discounts should be a red flag. Remember that when a "special offer" is too good to be true, it usually is. For instance, never click on links in emails or popups with very deep discount offers for watches, phones or tablets. Go to the website yourself through your browser and check if that offer is legit. 

2. Complimentary Vouchers or Gift Cards 
A popular holiday scam is big discounts on gift cards. Don't fall for offers from retailers or social media posts that offer phony vouchers or (Starbucks) gift cards paired with special promotions or contests. Some posts or emails even appear to be shared by a friend (who may have been hacked). Develop a healthy dose of skepticism and "Think Before You Click" on offers or attachments with any gift cards or vouchers! 

3. Bogus Shipping Notices From UPS and FedEx 
You are going to see emails supposedly from UPS and FedEx in your inbox that claim your package has a problem and/or could not be delivered. Many of these are phishing attacks that try to make you click on a link or open an attachment. However, what happens when you do that is that your computer gets infected with a virus or even ransomware which holds all your files hostage until you pay 500 dollars in ransom. 

4. Holiday Refund Scams 
These emails seem to come from retail chains or e-commerce companies such as Amazon or eBay claiming there's a "wrong transaction" and prompt you to click the refund link. However, when you do that and are asked to fill out a form, the personal information you give out will be sold to cyber criminals who use it against you. Oh, and never, never, never pay online with a debit card, only use credit cards. Why? if the debit card gets compromised, the bad guys can empty your bank account quickly. 

5. Phishing on the Dark Side 
A new phishing email has begun circulating that tricks people into thinking they could win movie tickets for the highly-anticipated film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," due out on Dec. 18. However, the email is a phishing attack. Leading up to the film’s release, and shortly after, you need to watch out for this social engineering attack and not fall for the scam. Stay safe online! 

BONUS TIP: Never use an insecure public Wi-Fi to shop with your credit card. Only shop with a secure connection at home. 

Let's be careful out there!

P@ssw0rds and You!

Passwords are everywhere! We live in a world ruled by passwords. We have a password or PIN for everything from our bank accounts, email to Facebook. With so much important and private information at stake, how can we ensure our passwords are secure and at the same time usable? The answer is not as difficult as you may think.

• Passwords should be easy to remember, but difficult to guess! Avoid using family names, pet names and single words as a password. Try mixing in numbers, uppercase letters and symbols to create easy to remember passwords such as: "1@wesomeP@ssw0rd". Notice how I substituted "1" in place of the word "One", "@" for "A" and used a "Zero" instead of an "O". This makes an easy to remember password, that is at the same time hard to guess. You are limited only by your own creativity in how you apply this technique. 

• Don't use the same password for multiple sites! Seriously, don't do this! If one password gets compromised, all of your accounts are now potentially accessible by the bad guys. They will then use that info to access popular sites like Gmail and Amazon. Use a different password for each account!

• Change passwords regularly. Passwords should be changed at least twice a year, preferably once a quarter. Is it inconvenient, yes. Is your bank account worth protecting? Of course it is.

It's easy to forget that there are bad guys out there actively looking for user accounts to pounce on. You can make it harder for them by using strong passwords and changing your passwords often. Your data, your privacy and your financial security may depend on it.

-> Test your current password here: https://howsecureismypassword.net/