People are being offered tips and advice to avoid being scammed this Christmas.
The Public Protection team at Liverpool City Council is providing advice on how to spot the most common scams.
What is a Christmas Scam?
Christmas scams are fraudulent attempts made during the month of December. Criminals target online shoppers with the goal of stealing credit card details, passwords, or personally identifiable information. Once the criminals obtain this information, they take control of a victim’s money or worse, their identity.
Fake websites
It’s harder to spot a scam website than you might imagine. Cybercriminals will use professional web designers to closely imitate the way a legitimate website looks, so you need a keen eye to ensure you spot the fakes.
To help you stay safe online this holiday season, we’ve compiled a list of the top 6 Christmas scams to be aware of. It’ll help you be better prepared, so you can focus on what’s most important at Christmas – those that matter to you the mo
The easiest way to spot a fake website is to look at the URL. Is it spelled correctly? Often, fraudsters will use URLs that are very close to a real site’s URL, but not quite the same. Often, one letter will be incorrect or there will be extra words in the URL. For example, www.google.com could become www.googie.com. This could easily be misread for the correct website address.
You should also look for a padlock icon in the…
