It’s our favorite time of the year again! The holiday season is prime time for celebration and gifts, but its also the favorite season for cybercriminals. There are many scammers looking to steal the holidays from you this season with Phishing scams skyrocketing, targeting individuals and business alike. They lean into our seasonal generosity, urgency, and desire for a good deal. To protect yourself and your business, here is an overview of the most common holiday phishing scams as well as some actionable steps to defend against them.
1. Common Holiday Phishing Scams
Like when fishing in a pond phishing scams hide the hook with something enticing to trick you into sharing your sensitive information. The holidays give scammers a plethora of opportunities to hide hooks right in front of us- thanks to seasonal habits.
a. Fake Deals
In marketing deals, especially limited timed ones, are used to create a sense of urgency. Often this is only bad for our wallets. However, hidden among the actual deals are ones that have a hidden hook in them.
- Too-Good-To-Be-True Sales:
One red flag to look for in the urgency of the deal hunt are too good to be true sales. These often times come in the form of an email or a website. They want to take advantage of your urgency to make you not look at the details to unknowingly enter your data on an unsecured site. - Gift Card Scams:
Phishing emails may masquerade as colleagues, supervisors, or a great deal. They will leverage the hustle and bustle to snag a good deal on gift cards. Make sure to slow down and confirm the legitimacy of requests or offers- better yet, get your gift cards from a physical location to lower the risk.
b. Charity Fraud Scams:
- Imposter Nonprofits:
With the spirit of giving and community high in the air scammers will send emails pretending to represent various charities. In these emails are likely going to be links to fake donation pages or attachments laced with malware. Make sure to identify proper contact with charities before entering your details. - Emotional Appeals:
When dealing with fake charity scams beware of your own heartstrings. The scammers of the season will attempt to elicit an emotional response to their requests. They will show you images or stories designed to bypass critical thinking to create a sense of need and urgency. Don’t allow your giving spirit to run without careful thought.
2. The Cost of Falling For the Hook
Beyond immediate inconvenience falling for a phishing scam can have long term and far reaching consequences for your business. Here are a couple of damaging outcomes of not protecting your data.
a. Financial and Operational Impacts:
- Data Breaches:
Stolen credentials from logging into a fake website can lead to unauthorized access to many more systems. Depending on the log in details given to a scammer they can in turn gain access to your credit cards or bank information causing serious financial repercussions. - Ransomware Attacks:
Clicking on malicious links can be especially serious if you are connected to a business network. These kind of cyberattacks can lock down critical business systems until a ransom is paid or until they extort other information out of the company.
b. Reputation Damage:
- Loss of Trust:
For a business operating with clients what can be more damaging than financial loss is the lost of trust if they leak customer information in a breach. Protecting yourself and your clients is critically important during this season. - Legal Implications:
Depending on the industry, mishandling sensitive data could also lead to fines or legal action by the hurt parties.
3. How To Protect Yourself
Prevention is the most important key to safeguarding yourself from phishing threats. With the right awareness, tools, and protocols you can reduce the risk significantly for yourself and those around you.
a. Foster a Culture of Caution:
- Holiday-Specific Awareness:
Along with increased risk should come increased awareness. Make sure you and those around you are aware of the above mentioned scammer strategies. - Encourage Reporting:
Employees and friends should get comfortable flagging suspicious emails. Even a legit email flagged wrongly is better than clicking on malicious links in a bad email. - Use Secure Channels for Verification:
Having secure and vetted ways to communicate with those around you that aren’t as susceptible to spoofing is critical at all times- but especially during heightened times of potential scams. Agree on secure channels to vet potentially spoofed communication.
b. Strengthen Cybersecurity Protocols:
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication:
Even when credentials are stolen, MFA will add an extra layer of security. Having these preset on all sensitive accounts will safe you or your business in the case of a lapse of judgement. Falling for a scam won’t necessarily clean you out with this measure in place. - Email Filtering and Monitoring:
Investing in email monitoring and security tools can be a life saver when it comes to suspicious messages and attachments. Having the peace of mind to flag a bad email and remove it from your network can be huge.
As we tip into the holiday season the risk of phishing scams increases. By educating yourself and those around you about the common scams like fake deals, and charity fraud. Stay vigilant, safeguard your assets and data!
