It’s the Holiday Phishing Season
With it being the holiday season, the bad guys are out in force with their phishing scams, so it’s time for the annual warning. We always see a big surge in the number of spam messages, and in particular the number phishing scams, this time of year.
The majority of phishing scams come in an email. They are very good at mimicking the look of legitimate sites, and making you think that the email is from your bank, or other financial institution. The safest thing to do, is to assume that any emails purporting to be from your bank or credit card company is one of the phishing scams. Do not click on the links! Instead, type the web address that you know is correct into your browser, and log in that way.
The other major phishing scam, is saying that you won something. Typically, these will have you go to a web site, and put in your credit card information, to cover shipping. Do not do it! In reality, almost all of these are scams, and are simply looking for your credit card information. Once they have that, then they use it for purchases or cash advances. Since these are usually overseas, they will almost always get away with it, and you are left to get the money back from your credit card company.
On-line shopping is, for the most part, as safe or safer than using your credit card in the store. Just make sure that you are shopping on a legitimate web site (again, type in the address and do not click on links in emails). Also, make sure that when you check out, that the web site is using encrypted communications. You should see "https://" (with the "s"), and not just "http://".
By exercising a little care, you can have a fun and safe holiday season on-line, and the bad guys do not.
Dave