{"id":59832,"date":"2018-11-16T13:38:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T19:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=59832"},"modified":"2018-11-16T13:38:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T19:38:11","slug":"hackers-holiday-savings-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/hackers-holiday-savings-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Hackers Prey on Holiday Shoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Tis&#8217; the Season to be <del>Jolly<\/del>\u00a0Scammed&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>As the holidays quickly approach, scammers are using holiday deals as a way to target customers.\u00a0 This approach is not new, but shoppers must be aware of the risk.\u00a0 With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal bombarding our news feeds, inboxes, and\u00a0web pages, it is critical shoppers understand the risk of clicking on malicious links disguised as online ads or store sites.\u00a0 It may sound far-fetched, that hackers would create lookalike sites of popular shopping web pages, but it\u2019s actually far too easy.\u00a0 By generating a lookalike site,\u00a0hackers are able to obtain all of the information shoppers would use in a normal checkout process.\u00a0 This includes names, addresses, and credit card information.<\/p>\n<p>It also wouldn\u2019t be surprising scammers request users to \u201clog in\u201d to shop.\u00a0 By doing so, hackers could obtain email addresses and passwords.\u00a0 This leads to additional risks.\u00a0 Think about how many times you use the same password for various sites.\u00a0 If hackers were to require a login, they would have your email address, password (likely one commonly used), address, and credit card data.\u00a0 Scary right?!<\/p>\n<p>Beyond creating fake websites, hackers are also creating fake links to sales ads.\u00a0 These ads could include ransomware, worms, viruses, and even keyloggers.<\/p>\n<p>So, what can shoppers do to protect themselves?\u00a0 Rather than clicking on the link in the email, simply visit the site directly in a browser.\u00a0 If they&#8217;ve sent a promotional email for 40% off, the website will have the same deal &#8212; or use the coupon code listed in the email.\u00a0 Also, be careful about deals that appear to be too good to be true &#8212; they typically are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tis&#8217; the Season to be Jolly\u00a0Scammed&#8230; As the holidays quickly approach, scammers are using holiday deals as a way to target customers.\u00a0 This approach is not new, but shoppers must be aware of the risk.\u00a0 With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal bombarding our news feeds, inboxes, and\u00a0web pages, it is critical shoppers understand the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":55231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[5105,235],"class_list":["post-59832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips","tag-holiday-scams","tag-scams"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hackers Prey on Holiday Shoppers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As Black Friday and Cyber Monday quickly approach, hackers are hoping you&#039;ll fall for these scams while you shop for your holiday savings...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/hackers-holiday-savings-scams\/\" 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