This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube video titled "@McAfee 12 Scams Of Christmas 2013" (posted Dec 1, 2013) containing an English interview/TV segment recorded from McAfee's Beacon Hill studio. The clip features host Catherine (and other anchors) interviewing Robert Siciliano, McAfee's online security expert, about the "12 Scams of Christmas" and common holiday cybersecurity threats—phony e-tailers, malicious mobile apps, SMS "smishing," travel/Wi‑Fi scams, malicious e-cards—and consumer safety tips (use official app stores, watch for too-good-to-be-true offers, use antivirus/anti-spyware and a firewall, etc.).
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Of course, we've got, you know, we're talking about Black Friday, but also not only shopping in stores but shopping online and the cyber scams going on right now.
Yeah, gotta be wary of that. I'm gonna have some tips on what to look for so you don't fall into that trap. You don't want to get taken there. That would not be good. All right, right now we want to get over to Catherine.
All right, thanks, Jim. Well, we've been talking a lot about shopping from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Everyone is looking for sales, but shoppers should also be wary of scams. McAfee has revealed the 12 Scams of Christmas, the dozen most dangerous online scams this holiday season. Robert Siciliano Robert Siciliano, McAfee's online security expert, joins us from our Beacon Hill studio with a warning for consumers about what to look out for while shopping online and from mobile devices. So first of all, Robert, what should consumers look for online this holiday season to avoid being scammed? What are some common red flags just across the board?
Well, first and foremost, you know, when you're searching out products online, make sure that you're doing business with reputable e-tailers, ones that you know, like, and trust, companies you've done business with before. If you show up, if you end up on a company that shows up on the first page of search and you've never heard of them, that's something called black hat SEO, which means that bad guys get the search engines to place that site on the first page of search, and more than likely that site just showed up in the, in the past month or so. So be aware of phony e-tailers just showing up this time of the year.
Okay, and I want to ask you specifically about some of these 12 scams. The first one I noticed, the not-so-merry mobile apps. There's an app for everything these days. They're fast, they're easy to use, but Some say that they may not be what they seem. So what is going on with some of these apps today?
Certainly. So if you have your iPhone or your Android, more than likely you're getting your applications from Google Play or iTunes. And as long as you're doing that, those apps have been properly vetted. However, when you go outside the walled gardens, meaning you, you go outside of Apple and Google to get applications, you could be downloading a malicious application designed to infect your device, like spyware that checks out your usernames and passwords and websites visited. So make sure that that application is only downloaded from the official application store, otherwise it could be malicious.
Now how about these holiday mobile SMS scams? I know that some of these are common all year long, but what happens with these scams, especially around the holidays?
Yeah, so bad guys are using robo-calling techniques. They're calling mobile phones and they're sending text messages called smishing. Smishing is to texting what phishing is to emails, and those smishes often have too good to be true offers designed to get you to click links in these text messages that infect your phone or bring you to phony e-tailer sites that will essentially send you down a rabbit hole, giving your credit card information to a bad guy.
Now, what goes on with these seasonal travel scams? Holiday time, people visiting relatives. What do they need to know if they're trying to find a deal on travel?
Again, doing searches online, showing up at phony e-tail sites, getting too-good-to-be-true offers on airfare and hotel and so forth. And then once you actually get to your destination, using Wi-Fi in hotels and in airports and so forth, there are hackers sitting on these free Wi-Fi portals and they're trying to get you to, you know, use your credit card information and ultimately they scan it through the— they scam it through the unprotected wireless connections.
That's scary stuff. And the last one, just quickly, I know that a lot of people sending e-cards this season, but some of these e-cards might not be so merry, right?
Yeah, my kid's auntie sends e-cards every year. You know, they have multimedia with video and audio, people dancing, you know, funny cards. But the problem is, is without all that multimedia, some of that multimedia can be malicious. It can be, you know, have a virus antivirus, and then bad guys send out these multimedia cards, you know, e-cards via phishing saying, you know, your loved one sent you this e-card, click this link. You click that link and it infects your device. You have to use antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing, and a firewall.
All right, such good advice. And we mentioned the 12 scams. The full list can be found at McAfee.com/12scams. And Robert Siciliano, thanks so much for joining us today and sharing that information with us.
