Beware, 5 cyber fraud at the end of this year

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Towards the end of the year, right in the holiday season, retailers and product manufacturers will hold large-scale promos in order to attract the attention of consumers who want to shop. Be careful, these moments are sometimes exploited by cyber criminals to do a scam or fraud.

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), McAfee, Better Business Bureau and the F-Secure has warned since from now this. Here are five forms of popular scam in the holiday season should be wary of, quoted by PC World, on Monday.

1. Offers Free iPad

iPad has become powerful enough bait to lure consumers. Anyone who refused was given the iPad? As the surge in popularity of Apple’s tablet PC output is, more and more people who want to have it. Ads offering free iPad is already banned on Facebook, but you still may see a promo like this on another site. Most forms of fraud is said to antivirus firm McAfee, trying to encourage consumers to buy a product to receive a free iPad.

2. Gift Vouchers

Get a gift card or voucher sent gifts in the holiday season is fun. But beware, the excitement could be fruitful if the shipment was disastrous fraud. McAfee said, the perpetrators of cyber crime intentionally to trap this way for you to provide personal information or take a quiz to redeem the gift card. Later, all the information you provide will be sold to marketers or used for identity theft.

The FBI also warned to be careful when purchasing gift vouchers through auction sites or classified ads because they are selling vouchers that could be fake. The best advice is to buy gift vouchers direct from authorized retailers.

3. Auction Sites and False Advertising

The perpetrators of cyber crime usually create fake websites to obtain details of the payment of holiday gift shoppers. Later, they will bill the credit card victims. To avoid this, make sure you only use the official payment service like Paypal.

4. Website Contains Malware

Spreading spam in the Google search engine with fake page contains a holiday gift is an annual tradition of cyber criminals. This page is usually already infiltrated bogus payment forms that aim to steal your identity.

Internet and computer security firm F-Secure has created a list of internet searches this year should be wary of them, Kinect for Xbox, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad. You are advised to immediately visit the retailer’s website and use the product concerned internet security software if you must always check for ‘https’ in the URL bar before ordering goods online in order to ensure that you visit the page is completely secure.

5. WiFi Hacker

McAfee noted, public WiFi network will be deployed this holiday season, remember there will be many people who travel. You can follow some safety tips on public WiFi. But the best advice is, avoid shopping and paying bills via online using a public WiFi network.

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