Cybersecurity expert offers tips to protect yourself from holiday scammers
Global News
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for many, including fraudsters, who are looking to take advantage of you when you least expect it.
With the holidays rapidly approaching, it can also be the most wonderful time of the year for fraudsters looking to take advantage of people when they least expect it.
Every year there are wide variety of scams criminal minds attempt, Greg Young, vice president of cybersecurity at Trend Micro, told Global News, that this year, one appears to be fake shipping notification scams.
“Bad guys are sending out notifications, either by email or by text or SMS that you’ve received or missed a delivery from Amazon or DHL or others, and there’s a link there to click on,” he explained.
“Usually these are quite well written (and) the idea is to just click on (it) and you know you’re going to get malware. And you know that that’s just the start of ransomware or something else.”
Because people are concerned about getting gifts for loved ones in time for the holidays, Young said the scammers are preying on people’s anxieties to wreak havoc.
There are other scams, he said, such as pretending there are issues with your COVID passport or that a relative might be ill.
“All of these have one common element. They are going to play into some kind of stressful event for you, or something you feel aggrieved about, or you have to react to quickly,” the cybersecurity expert explained.
“You’ve been exposed to COVID. Your COVID passport is invalid. There are just so many: your insurance is revoked, duct cleaning, any possible thing that could stress you out.”