As holiday season is engulfing our spirit with the excitement of shopping, gifts, and celebration, malware and phishing scams are also filling up the cyber space with new baits and lure. That’s why FBI has rolled a series of warnings for unsuspecting shoppers who are the most vulnerable to these severe online threats. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned this week to encourage online shoppers to be more careful and inspect every deal and offer carefully before falling prey to the trap and robbed off their money. FBI has stated that –

“Scammers use many techniques to defraud consumers, from phishing e-mails offering too good to be true deals on brand-name merchandise to offering quick cash to victims who will re-ship packages to additional destinations. Previously reported scams are still being executed today.”      

Earlier United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) also issued warning messages to keep off notorious phishing scams, malware threats and other cyber crimes which are most prevalent, yet look so real to detect. US-CERT has painstakingly mentioned bogus online elements which could contain malware or scams. These include electronic greeting cards, requests for funds and charity, screensaver and similar media items, credit card applications, shipping notifications which looks received from legitimate shipping companies, and online shopping advertisements among others.

FBI’s warnings of phishing and malware scams

  • Watch when and where you are giving credit card details
  • Be watchful of communications from banks which contain links.
  • Avoid unknown, newly developed online shopping sites
  • Be careful of sites in search results especially those which contain several extra characters in the URL.
  • Restrain from responding to mail messages from unknown senders.
  • Do not click links similar to  http://www.techhive.com/article/2047101/instagram-for-pc-application-is-a-marketing-scam.html?tk=rel_news which contain malware in the form of images on the page.

In addition to these, FBI has also warned not to fill out online forms which come with email messages and ask for personal information, credit card details and other vital credentials. FBI also stated to be watchful of messages which encourage to act quickly. So, keep your eyes wide open and remember these cautions while you are shopping online this holiday season.