Heather's Blog

Christmas only means one thing, Christmas shopping! And for most of us, we don’t have the time nor patience to be pushed into by our fellow shoppers or wait in queues until New Year arrives!  Instead we use our trusty friend the PC so it’s very important that you are not subjected to any Christmas scams.  It’s a lucrative time of year for these little crooks, so it’s imperative that you know what to look for.

Seasonal Social Networking Scams

It always good to get Christmas presents from your friends, but if you find links in your inbox from friends you don’t know, the only present you’ll end up having is an infected PC. These links will contain malicious malware that will mess with your computer, steal personal information and use them against you. Never click the link.

Fake Delivery Emails

There is a good reason why you have a junk/spam folder, and most of the emails that land in there are there for a reason. This tells you that they’ve been detected as potential threats and should be binned straight away. Sometimes, they do manage to dodge your junk box and it ends up in your inbox.  It might look real but please take no notice, if you’ve not ordered anything then you will not be expecting an email about it.

The email will look like it’s come from UPS, U.S Customs or Fed Ex but again if you haven’t ordered anything then you shouldn’t be expecting anything.  Usually with these, you have to enter your credit card details so that you can open an account in order for you to receive your goods.

Note: Real companies will NEVER ask you for financial details through emails. Ignore and delete! 

Auction Site Scams 

Do you know what you are bidding on really exists? Or did it cross your mind you are being scammed ? Often people are asked to make an email bid, this will take you to a very good duplicate of the site which will ask you to enter your details and before you know it, they have cleared your account out.

Holiday E-Cards 

It always makes you very popular when people see you’ve put them on your Christmas card list. However one of the most naughty and offensive tricks are the fake e-cards. These cards have worms which gain access to your address book and send all your contacts the same card. Who said personalisation was dead?! Last year McFee found worms in Coca Cola, Mc Donald’s promotion’s and even Hallmark cards!.

Christmas Carols

It isn’t all song and dance! We all love a good old Christmas carol, but you may forget the words and search for the lyrics online. Believe us when we say it’s the worst thing you can do, McAFee found some lyric sites contain viruses, spyware and adware. So you could get more than you bargained for!

Be safe on the season of good will:

• Be vigilant  when clicking links even if you know who has sent them. They may have been caught short themselves!
•  Be very careful when opening your emails.
• The very important thing to look out for and avoid – are URLs (click this link for…) jpeg and .ppt files which can all hide malware

So with that in mind, Merry Christmas!