The holiday season is the busiest time of year when it comes to shopping and retailing. People both make the decision to go to stores, or make a variety of purchases online. Although online shopping can be a major convenience, it has its risks. I say this because the holiday season is the busiest time of year for more than just online shoppers. Of course, I am referring to scammers.
Scammers use anything from social networking media to fake holiday offers in order to scheme against every day consumers. People are always looking for good deals on holiday gifts, therefore paying less attention when giving out personal information to websites. Scammers, for instance, send emails with a known company’s logo that offer gift cards, and then ask for your credit card information for shipping. The gift card, however, never arrives, and you’re now susceptible to fraudulent crimes. Scammers use charity labels as well, and basically use the same idea as mention before.
People often travel during the holidays, and as they travel, they search for hot spots and Wi-Fi connection. Although this more of a rare case, some scammers are capable of designing malware that hacks that connection, and can see what each user of it is doing. Hackers can use this information against you, and this could potentially lead to identity theft.
Part 2 coming soon!
