With Christmas day fast approaching, you probably turn to online shops to buy your last-minute presents or book travel arrangements. Scammers, however, are also busy beefing up their efforts to steal your money over the festive season.
It's crucial to stay vigilant at all times during your Christmas shopping. Keep reading, and I'll walk you through the red flags to be aware of and how security software, like the best VPN apps, can help you stay safe.
Christmas scams red flags
1. Too good to be true
This is the main thing to remember every time you shop online – if an offer sounds too good to be true, well, it usually is.
Stay vigilant at all times as scammers may advertise incredible (but fake) discounts on different platforms, including social media, unsolicited emails, and even private messages. Of course, these incidents are likely to become more frequent during the Christmas shopping rush.
So, even if you have a ton of presents left to get, take your time to read through reviews or compare the prices with other sites. Also, you should be skeptical of requests for personal information or payment details at an early stage.
2. Malicious ads
As per Google's Ads Safety Report, Google removed or blocked 206.5 million ads for misrepresentation last year, including those that were found to be scams or promoting malware. Search engines weren't the only places filled with ad scams, either, as online shopping fraud was also prominent across social media platforms, according to Statista.
Now, scammers utilize interactive ads to capture shoppers' attention. These scams, which include games, quizzes, or innocent-looking apps, take advantage of interactive elements to tempt users into having fun with a seemingly innocent ad.
"These scams can trick users into providing personal information, downloading malware, or signing up for services they don't want," explains Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN. "Despite their entertaining look, interactive ads are a perfect tool for scammers, particularly on social media platforms, where users tend to be less cautious."
3. Fake shops
Fake shops are becoming increasingly widespread online – and more and more convincing. This is because cybercriminals now use generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, to craft convincing scams and dodgy websites.
That said, there are still some red flags you can look out for to determine if a shopping website is legitimate or not. As a rule of thumb, you should be wary of unbelievably cheap offers that seem too good to be true.
Looking at the domain name is another good way to verify if the store is legit. Other characteristics of malicious websites include an amateurish design, grammar mistakes, and poor spelling. Before pressing the buy button, you should also check the reviews and contact sections to see if they look like the real deal.
4. Unsolicited messages
While ad scams and fake shops are getting popular, malicious messages remain perhaps the most common method for scammers to spread phishing attacks. The Christmas season is an ideal time for those kinds of scams, too, as criminals take advantage of the fact you're likely waiting for a few deliveries or time-sensitive deals.
You should particularly be wary of fake shipping, account verification, and order confirmation notifications as these are the most common scams. Hence, beware of unsolicited messages especially when you cannot recognize the sender.
Criminals may also pretend to be legit companies to send you a Congratulations-type email to push you to click on a dodgy link. Again, it's very unlikely for companies to give away free products – even during Christmas time.
How to protect against Christmas scams
While your judgment is the most important weapon you have to use to ensure scammers can't get your money or your data, there are some security tools that can boost your protection against these Christmas shopping scams.
For starters, using a virtual private network (VPN) allows you to mask your real IP address and virtual location. This makes it harder for cybercriminals, advertisers, and any other third parties to spy on your activities and intercept your sensitive data.
VPNs do more than just shore up your online security, however. NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro, for example, keeps you safe against fake shops, phishing scams, and even malware infections. Two independent audits even recently confirmed it to be the top tool to block malicious sites.
If a link looks dodgy, you can use a link checker tool to check if it's legit before clicking on it. Even better, these services are often free to use, including the ones developed by NordVPN and IPVanish.
Enabling two-factor authentication is also crucial to minimize the risk of your account getting compromised. Getting an unsolicited verification notification could mean someone is trying to access your account, giving you the time you need to change your password and prevent intrusions.
Using a reliable password manager tool is a great way to generate strong passwords and stay on top of your login details across all your accounts. While you need to subscribe to one of the top-tier plans to use NordPass, the likes of ExpressVPN and Proton VPN come with this extra security feature included at no extra charge.
