Happy Scammer Season!

‘Tis the season to remind everyone to be wary of scammers trying to ruin your holidays. This week kicks off the ninth annual National Tax Security Awareness Week, a joint effort between the IRS, states, the tax industry and tax professionals.

“Taxpayers should use extra caution this holiday season to protect their valuable personal and financial information, whether shopping online or clicking on links in email and other messages,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “A little extra caution can protect taxpayers’ confidential information and reduce the risk of identity theft in the upcoming filing season.”

According to the IRS, we will see increased online “phishing” this time of year used by identify thieves and scam artists:

• Phishing/Smishing: emails or texts which attempt to trick a recipient into clicking a suspicious link, filling out information or downloading a malware file.
• Spear phishing: This scam bypasses emailing large groups at an organization, instead identifying potential victims and deliver a more realistic email know as a lure. These can be trickier to identify since they don’t occur in large numbers and single out individuals.
• Clone phishing: This is a newer type of scam that clones a real email message and resends it to the original recipient pretending to be the original sender. The new message will either have an attachment that contains malware or a link that tries to steal information.
• Whaling: Whaling attacks are similar to spear phishing, except these attacks are generally targeted to leaders or other executives with access to large amounts of information at an organization – like those in payroll, human resources, and financial offices.

More specifically, there are 5 common scams you may see this holiday season:

1. Missed Delivery Text Alerts: A text message arrives, indicating that a delivery from Amazon, UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc., could not be delivered. It includes a message to “Click this link to reschedule delivery.” The link leads to a fake site that resembles a known brand and will ask for information such as login credentials.
2. Gift Card Payment: As people are frantically search for last minute holiday gifts, scammers will list these items online, sometimes at reduced prices if the buyer pays with a gift card. For example, paying with an Amazon or Target gift card to safe an extra 10%. However, the fraudulent site just captures the gift card number and uses it to make purchases with the retailer.
3. Seasonal Travel Deals: While this scam can happen anytime, scammers like to ramp up these tactics during the holidays. Scammers offer travel packages at too-good-to-be-true rates. The sites then collect credit card information, which they claim is used to “save the rate,” but then scammers take the funds and disappear.
4. Charitable Donations: This one has been around for years because it works. People feel generous around the holidays and want to help those in need. Scammers know this and will set up replica charity sites, or create their own, that tug at the heart strings. Givers may even get a receipt for tax purposes to make it seem more legitimate.
5. Venmo: Like other overpayment scams, this starts with the victim receiving what they believe is an unexpected Venmo payment. The scammer will apologize for sending the funds and ask for the money to be returned but, in reality, they used a fake card for the “overpayment”, so when the victims “return” the cash, they end up losing money. Or the scammer will target someone online looking to buy tickets or other goods. The scammer will contact them and tell them to pay upfront using Venmo, only to never provide the goods.

Some tips to avoid these scams:

• Avoid clicking links and entering things like username, passwords or payment information.
• Treat gift cards like cash: Use a credit card from a bank or credit union when holiday shopping.
• Use Apple Pay or Google Pay. Paying at cash registers that accept Apple Pay or Google Pay is safer than swiping credit cards.
• Avoid electronic transfer of money for payment: Use a credit card. If the recipient is requesting use of Venmo or related services, verify before transferring funds.
• Make a plan for secure package deliveries: Many people are home now during the day, so getting packages safely is easier than in years past. However, consider working with a neighbor or two and ask them to bring your packages into their home if you are going to be away

Additional proactive safety measures to remember during the holiday season and throughout the year:

• Shop at online sites with secure web addresses, meaning those that begin with the letters “https:” where the “s” stands for secure communications. You can also look for a padlock symbol in the browser window.
• Don’t shop on unsecured public Wi-Fi in places like a mall or restaurant.
• Ensure security software is updated on computers, tablet and mobile phones.
• Watch out and help protect the devices of family or friends who may not be technologically savvy which could be anyone from young children to older adults.
• Make sure anti-virus software for computers has a feature to stop malware, and that there is a firewall enabled to prevent intrusions.
• Use strong, unique passwords for online accounts and use multi-factor authentication whenever possible.

It can sound exhausting to keep up with all of the bad actors out there, but awareness is truly the first line of defense. Happy Shopping!