{"id":3043,"date":"2024-11-21T11:55:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T19:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2024-11-21T11:55:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T19:55:29","slug":"how-to-spot-cyber-scams-this-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/2024\/11\/how-to-spot-cyber-scams-this-holiday-season\/","title":{"rendered":"How to spot cyber scams this holiday season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the holiday season approaches, fraudsters take advantage of shoppers looking for online deals and digital gifts. Here are some ways you can spot scams and stay cyber-safe while you get those holiday deals!<\/p>\n<h3>Signs of a scam<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Poor website design<\/strong>: Watch for blurry images, typos, and sites missing return or privacy policies. If you want to dig deeper, you can even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whois.com\/whois\/\">look up when a site was created<\/a> &#8211; a brand new website could be a sign of a scam.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Low (suspiciously low) prices: <\/strong>If the prices are way too low, the goods may be counterfeit or the store might accept your payment but not deliver on the promised shipment. We love a good deal, but sometimes it&#8217;s too good to be true!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Store is missing key company information:<\/strong> Legitimate e-commerce sites will have some key ingredients: a return policy, a privacy policy, and contact information (an address or phone number at minimum).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Store asks for too much information: <\/strong>It\u2019s normal to enter your shipping and billing info to an online retailer. But, there is some information you should never share: SIN number, your mother\u2019s maiden name, or any other sensitive information not needed for a normal purchase. A site asking for this info is almost certainly a scam.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;Delivery notice&#8221; scams:<\/strong> Fake delivery notice emails and SMS messages circulate more during the holidays. Be way of messages claiming to be from Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, and other shipping services; especially if they ask for a payment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Best practices<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Buy from stores and brands you recognize:<\/strong> This is especially true for electronics. We get it \u2014 that knockoff laptop comes at a fraction of the price of its branded counterpart, but those low-cost gadgets often aren\u2019t worth it. You might be sent a dud that doesn\u2019t turn on or doesn\u2019t work as promised. At worst, they may contain security threats that try to steal your personal information or download malware to your devices.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Read the reviews: <\/strong>Low-scoring reviews can help you identify scam sites. But be wary if you\u2019re seeing only 5 stars &#8211; no product is ever perfect, so if you\u2019re only seeing rave reviews, there\u2019s a good chance it isn\u2019t real. Fraudulent vendors will often have fake reviews to try and legitimize what they\u2019re \u201cselling\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cyber Safe gift giving guide:<\/strong> Gifting a smart device or other electronic? Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getcybersafe.gc.ca\/en\/resources\/get-cyber-safe-gift-guide\">Get Cyber Safe&#8217;s gift giving guide<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the holiday season approaches, fraudsters take advantage of shoppers looking for online deals and digital gifts. Here are some ways you can spot scams and stay cyber-safe while you get those holiday deals! Signs of a scam Poor website design: Watch for blurry images, typos, and sites missing return or privacy policies. If you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cybersecurity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AzwP-N5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3045,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions\/3045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/itservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}