This Christmas season is the biggest ever for online sales, even in this sluggish economy.  Federal and local law enforcement agencies around the country are receiving an increase too.

Charitable Organizations

Charitable organizations are understandably seeking donations to help those in need but organizations that are fraudulent are also on the move. Beware of  scams asking for donations.  Don’t respond to emails asking for donations.  Anyone can make an authentic looking email and create a web site that seems to be an organization that isn’t.

If you have a favorite charity, send them a check, it’s safer and you don’t have to worry about where it went.  Be careful about donating online.  I don’t recall ever receiving an email from a charitable organization soliciting donations.

Phishing Scams

Phony emails claiming to be your bank, a bank you never use, government agencies, or anyone asking you to visit their site to “verify” your bank or credit card information are definitely a scam.  This is called phishing , someone is trying to steal your credit card information or bank information.  Don’t visit their sites (click on their links) and delete those emails. No legitimate business or government agency asks for personal information via email!  It is unbelievable how many people fall for these scams.  Most thieves are in a foreign country and usually cant’ be touched by our law enforcement.

Common Scams

People fall for this one all the time.  You receive an email telling you that you won a lottery, a give-a-way, inherited money, need help transferring money, or you out of a billion people were selected to help get millions of dollars out of a country.  It usually involves you sending them a check to cover some kind of handling fee and in return they will send you a check. Sometimes they will send you a check (which is bogus) that looks like a bank check and asks you to send them a lesser amount to cover some charge.  This one goes on all the time an folks still fall for it.  Think, out of all of the people on the planet why would they pick you? Why, because they hope you are the one that falls for it.

Passwords

While you are busy shopping online, hackers are busy trying to get  your credit card, bank, personal, and any information they can use about you to steal from you.

Your cute, easy to remember passwords are cracked in seconds by hackers.  They use programs that pound away at accounts using common words called a dictionary attack. When that fails, they have to use every character on your keyboard with every combination to try to crack a password.  I know, it’s a pain to create a password using @#$%& and other special characters and numbers, but that is what keeps you safe.  Try 12 character passwords using special characters, upper and lower case letters and numbers.  You can make it easier on yourself by making them from a phrase.  For example let’s use “the black horse” and turn it into a password.  Try something like @tHeB!ackh0r5e#.  A password similar to this is likely not to be broken easily. Those 15 characters will take an unbelievable amount of time to crack.  That’s the point, they give up and move on to an easier one leaving you alone.

Email Accounts

While on the subject of passwords, don’t forget to upgrade your email account password.  This is becoming a favorite target.  Why?  Many of us receive PIN numbers, and passwords through email.  Many of us use those same passwords and PINs for other accounts.  Delete them once you get them!

All Year

By the way, this applies all year, not just the holiday season.  Hackers and scammers get better every day, so should you.  Change your password often, don’t open attachments to emails (remember the last time you had a computer virus?), and don’t let the bad guys get your information or money by falling for scams.