Top 3 Recommendations to Avoid Online Holiday Fraud and Scams

The holidays are a time for online fraud and scams. So it's very important for all of us to follow the best cybersecurity practices to keep our holidays from turning into a digital disaster. So let's talk about 3 different aspects. The first is about online shopping. Now, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, uh, the CISA, has a great website. And I'll put the link in the description. And within it, it talks about some best practices when you're buying things online, whether it's making sure your devices are secure, uh, shopping through secure portals, or ways of actually purchasing in a safe way. You never want to use a debit card, by the way. Always use a credit card. Um, this is a great resource, and again, the link will be in the description to make sure that your online purchases are safe and secure. Now, the second thing, because that isn't the only threat out there, during this time we see a huge increase in the amount of phishing attempts. And they can come through email, they can come through text, even phone, phone calls. And these types of phishing attempts are really trying to get your information, whether it be your login or your credit card number. So they may come at you and say, hey, we need to validate your credit card number for your recent purchases. We need to validate your username or your password, things of that sort. Never give out your password to anybody that calls and asks, ever. That is a huge red flag. And understand if somebody is contacting you outside the norms, you need to make sure that they are truly authentic and from that organization. If you ever have any concerns, contact the organization, whether it's a shopping, place or, or whatnot, ask them, verify, check to see where that email or that text is coming from. In most cases, it needs to be from a validated account before you would ever want to give that information. And anybody calling and asking or emailing and asking for your credit card, again, a big red flag. It's normally done through the web portals, and there's certain controls around that space. So be very, very wary. Now the last thing is really about frauds, and frauds skyrocket this time of year. And the normal ones that you might get, again, through a telephone call, especially in email or instant messaging, texts on your phone, and again, these can be all manner. Typical ones are, "Your package couldn't be delivered," right? And then they'll ask you a whole bunch of questions or, "Please resubmit your credit card," or something like that. Or your credit card's been turned down, please resubmit it. Things like this. Again, they're looking for that information. It's a fraud. Your bank transfer or your credit card, there's a problem with that, please call us or give us this information, or, you know, you need to buy a gift card instead. All these kinds of things. They tend to crop up even more. And because we're in that mode, we need to get the gifts, we need to do this online, We can be susceptible, especially this time of year, to those types of frauds. My favorite, by the way, is, you know, "Law enforcement has detected that you've committed some type of criminal act, or you're part of some criminal shopping group, and the authorities are coming to arrest you unless you call, unless you provide me this information, unless you give me these, your credit card number," or purchase some gift cards and send us the information. Again, it's all fraudulent. It's important this time of year that we keep our heads about us and just understand the cybercriminals, they're amping up their activities right now to target people. So be concerned, be suspicious. There are lots of resources out there to help you if you do get victimized or if you're not sure. Tips to help you avoid that. Again, lots of resources out there. Please use them. Let's all have a safe digital holiday.