Holiday E-Card Scams: How to Protect Yourself This Season

Holiday E-Card Scams

• 🎄 Scammers exploit the holiday season's abundance of fun emails, such as party invitations, season's greetings, and gift cards, to target unsuspecting individuals.
• 🎯 The primary goal for scammers is to get you to click on a malicious link within an e-card.

Identifying E-Card Scams

• ⚠️ Be wary of invitations, especially if they contain a link to RSVP, as this is a common entry point for scams.
• 🔍 Hover over links with your cursor (or finger on mobile) to preview the destination URL before clicking.
• 🚩 Look for misspellings and unusual domain suffixes in the website address, which are major red flags.
• 🚫 Never download anything from unknown senders, as this can lead to malware infection on your device.

Protecting Your Information

• 📞 If an e-card invitation seems legitimate but is from someone you know, verify it by calling them directly to confirm its authenticity.
• 📧 Never provide personal or financial information through email, especially in response to unsolicited e-cards.
• 💡 Unsolicited e-cards often aim to steal personal information or gain remote access to your device.

Responding to Scams

• ⚡ If you fall victim to an e-card scam, act quickly by changing your passwords immediately.
• 💻 Consider running an antivirus or anti-malware scan to cleanse your device of any malicious software.
• 🧼 It's a good practice to give your online presence a thorough security check during the holiday season due to the prevalence of scams.