The holiday season is in full swing. The bells are ringing and the slush is glistening. But while we’re busy cozying up to the fire, scammers are up to their no-good tricks.
In the frenzy of online gift shopping, digital season’s-greetings and one-click purchases, our usual cyber vigilance can fall by the wayside. And that’s when scammers go phishing. It’s enough to temper anyone’s holiday zeal.
Benoit Dupont, a professor in Université de Montréal’s School of Criminology and the holder of the Research Chair in Cybercrime Prevention and the Canada Research Chair in Cyber Resilience, gives us the breakdown on cybercrime and how to avoid holiday scams.
What is it that makes the holiday season so attractive to cybercriminals?
Certain times of year can pull our focus in different directions. Income tax season, around March and April, is prime time for scammers. So is the period between Black Friday and year-end, when consumers flock online in search of gifts and holiday steals. With the rising cost of living, shoppers are keeping their eyes peeled for a bargain. The risk of falling prey to a scam also rises, because scammers are only too happy to provide those too-good-to-be-true deals we’re looking for.Yes. It works better than you might think. People may feel pressure to jump on a special offer before it’s too late. It can be tempting to snap up that must-have item for what seems like peanuts.
Factor our heightened seasonal emotions into the deal and we can find our decision-making skills also taking a holiday. That’s exactly when fraudsters pounce.
That’s a tricky question. We don’t have enough statistics to say for sure. But given the holiday context, some type of consumer fraud is a fair bet for top place. Watch out for fake online stores masquerading as the real deal, selling sought-after items at huge discounts. Needless to say, those purchases never make it down the chimney. Phony social media sites selling discounted gift cards are also common scams that cheat people out of their hard-earned money.
Seeing an unprecedented surge in the value of Bitcoin? Some people might see that as a good time to buy into cryptocurrency. Cue the investment scams, promising huge returns with relatively small initial investments.
No group in particular. Scammers are equal-opportunity fraudsters. Scams are extremely large-scale operations, and the idea is to cast as wide a net as possible.
Younger generations risk greater exposure to scams because they spend so much more of their time online. Millennials between the ages of 30 and 45, with their high credit-card limits, are also highly susceptible.
But the most vulnerable group are the elderly. Unlike youngsters who’ve only just entered the job market, older generations have had time to build large nest eggs and therefore have far more money on the line. Some may also be experiencing cognitive decline and will put their trust in offers that younger, more cynical generations would recognize as wacky off the bat.
So how can we, as consumers, protect ourselves from scams? What do we need to look out for?
Scammers are incredibly resourceful, so beyond following a few general recommendations, there’s just no way to prepare for every possible scenario.The first piece of advice is to develop a healthy dose of scepticism. Don’t become paranoid but do look that holiday gift horse in the mouth. Take a moment to question the too-good-to-be-true opportunity that popped up in your feed. Double-check to make sure the websites you visit are legitimate, or do a search in scamwatcher.com/ . What we need to do is build mental firewalls against our innate credulous tendencies.
Not sure if something is a scam? Don’t be shy, ask around. One of the ways scammers manipulate us is by isolating us from friends and family.
And last but not least, get informed. Try to stay on top of the latest trends in online scams so you don’t get snared in their net. The media have done much of the legwork already. It’s up to us to use that information and educate ourselves about fraudulent schemes so we’re better prepared to face them. Because scammers will always find ways to try to Grinch you out of your holiday cheer.
