Festive Fraud Alert: Your Guide to Avoiding Christmas Scams

The holiday season brings cheer, but it also brings a surge in sophisticated scams designed to take advantage of distracted shoppers and charitable givers. Staying informed is your best defense.

1. Top Christmas Scams to Watch Out For

Scammers exploit common holiday activities like shopping, shipping, and charitable giving. Be cautious of the following prevalent schemes:

A. Fake Websites and Online Shopping Fraud

Fraudsters create professional-looking websites that mimic major retailers or advertise in-demand products at extremely low prices (70-90% off).

• The Goal: To steal your payment details, personal information, or money for items that are never delivered or turn out to be cheap counterfeits.

• Warning Signs: Unrealistic discounts, misspelled URLs (e.g., companyname-shop.com), lack of verifiable contact details, and generic product images.

B. Delivery and "Smishing" Scams

This is the most common scam during the holidays, often arriving via text message ("smishing") or email ("phishing").

• The Goal: To trick you into clicking a link that leads to a fake courier website, where you are asked to pay a small "re-delivery fee" or confirm your personal details, thus harvesting your card information and passwords.

• Warning Signs: Messages claiming a delivery failed and asking you to click a link to reschedule. Legitimate courier companies rarely ask for payment or sensitive details via text or unsolicited email.

C. Gift Card Scams

Scammers often request payment in the form of gift cards (iTunes, Amazon, etc.) because they are difficult to trace.

• The Goal: To quickly acquire funds that cannot be recovered.

• Warning Signs: Any business, government agency, or individual requesting you to settle a payment, debt, or bill using gift cards. No legitimate company or service will ever demand gift card payment.

D. Fake Charities and Donation Requests

Playing on the spirit of giving, criminals impersonate legitimate organizations.

• The Goal: To steal your donation money and capture your bank details.

• Warning Signs: Unsolicited emails or social media posts asking for urgent donations. Always navigate directly to the official charity's website to donate, rather than clicking a link in an email.

2. Proactive Steps: How to Shop Safely and Prevent Fraud

Adopting these simple habits can drastically reduce your risk of falling victim to a holiday scam:

Action

How to Apply This

Verify Before You Click

Never click on a link in an unexpected text, email, or social media ad, especially if it creates a sense of urgency.

Go Direct

If you see a deal or delivery notification, close the message and navigate directly to the official retailer’s or courier’s website by typing the address yourself.

Check the URL

Before entering any payment details, ensure the website address starts with https:// (the 's' stands for secure) and look for the padlock icon in your browser's address bar.

Be Skeptical of Discounts

If a price seems genuinely too good to be true (e.g., 80% off a brand-new item), assume it is a scam.

Use Credit Cards

Whenever shopping online, use a credit card or a secure payment platform like PayPal. Credit cards offer better fraud protection than debit cards, making it easier to recover lost money.

Secure Your Accounts

Use strong, unique passwords for all shopping and financial accounts, and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible.

3. Immediate Action: If a Scam is In Progress

If you have realized that you are actively engaging with a scammer, or have just shared financial information, you must act immediately.

STOP ALL COMMUNICATION and contact us immediately.

If you are concerned that a scam is currently in progress, please contact us without delay:

• By Phone: Contact us immediately via our dedicated phone line: 01207 261 259 (Press 4 for the Scam Reporting Desk). 

• Online: Use our Contact Us Forum, which you can find on the top right menu option of this website.

Secondary Steps:

1. Contact Your Bank: Call your bank or credit card company immediately. Inform them you have been scammed and ask them to cancel the transaction and freeze your card.

2. Change Passwords: If you shared any account passwords or think a scammer might have access to your device, change all associated passwords instantly.

3. Report the Scam: Report the incident to your local fraud reporting agency to help prevent others from becoming victims.