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Scammers are always on the lookout for new avenues to exploit honest people. Unfortunately, the holiday season offers the perfect context for them to prey on people’s finances. With the typical sales spike triggered by the holiday season, scammers gain more opportunities. This is the time of the year when people are prone to spend recklessly buying presents, but not all their money might reach honest sellers. Here are a few tips to help you steer clear of holiday scams.
Watch out for Red Flags That Might Indicate a Fake Website
Fake websites are quite common these days. These are websites that simply advertise products they do not actually sell. Their purpose might differ. Cybercriminals might persuade clients to buy products from their website and offer them all the typical steps of a regular online purchase. However, in the end, customers don’t receive the due orders because the seller only takes their money and has no real merchandise to offer. This is often the case of fake websites that impersonate established online sellers. Another purpose of fake websites is to simply collect customers’ personal information they can later sell of the dark web or use to commit identity theft.
Some of the red flags you should watch out for if you buy gifts online this year, especially from a website you’re not familiar with include:
– Very frequent spelling mistakes
– Lack of contact details or details about the company’s location
– Lack of Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions pages
– No reference to the company’s refund policy
– The website’s URL doesn’t start with https
– The URL is different from what you see in the ad that directed you to the website
– The seller insists that you don’t pay by credit or debit card
Be Wary of Social Media Advertisements
With the shopping frenzy that goes on online these days, scammers find many ways to infiltrate their shady ads among legitimate holiday promotions. Since social platforms are the places where people spend most of their time online. This is also where a lot of marketing efforts are concentrated. While most social media ads are legitimate paid advertising, there are also fake advertisements out there.
Although they look just like genuine ads, there is usually something that sets fake advertisements apart – they offer huge discounts, the kind that seem too good to be true. To make sure you don’t fall for a fake ad that won’t actually help you get a fancy product at a 70% discount, avoid it. Simply read the offer but don’t click on the ad to purchase the product directly from that link. Look for that offer on the web, if you can’t find the seller and its promotion elsewhere, you might have dodged a scam.
Avoid Making Donations to Pushy Fundraisers
The holiday season is also the perfect occasion for scammers to deceit good-willed people who are willing to help others. There are many ways to trick people into donating for a bogus cause. The pushier a fundraiser is and the fewer details they provide about their charity, the more cautious you should be.
If you want to make sure your hard-earned money goes to the right cause, avoid donating on the spot. If you’re approached for a donation in front of a supermarket or a commercial center, don’t feel pressured to donate cash there and then. Ask the fundraiser to provide you with the details of the organization they represent. When you get home, you can do a bit of research to make sure it’s legit and make a wire transfer afterward.
Use Your Cards When Completing a Purchase
A common aspect encountered in many online shopping scams are alternative payment methods. Scammers know that once a buyer uses their credit or debit card to pay for fake products, there is a record of their transaction, one that could finally lead to them. To avoid these types of scams it is highly recommended to preform security upgrades. We have seen such upgrades in numerous international investment companies such as, Sun Investment Group, Bastion Balance, Willkommen bei M&G Investments.
Cards are the safest way to pay for products you buy online, and since most shops require you to register a card when you create an account, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use it. In case you do get scammed, at least you have proof of payment, and you can help the authorities track down the scammer.
Alternative payment methods such as cryptocurrency are the least safe ones as no one can track those transactions.
There are numerous holiday scams that take place both online and in-person in the holiday season. To avoid becoming a victim, be cautious, do your research, and generally, avoid buying or donating on the spur of the moment.
