Holiday Email Scams to be Wary Of

The five top email scams are just in time for the holidays.

“Cybercriminals use the same tactics they always do, but target people more during the holiday season with “special” offers via fake email campaigns. These fake email campaigns can trick people into downloading malware and/or can trick people into giving attackers their personal information”– Jan Sirmer, senior malware analyst at Avast.

(1) The Fake Holiday Offer: Whether it is membership offers or special shopping deals, be cautious of the offers you receive around the holidays by email.

(2) The Fake Shipment Updates: Cybercriminals are also aware how important it is to receive online orders on time, so they spoof package delivery services, using emails with subject lines such as: ‘Your latest DHL invoice: MSE7396821′ from e-billing.uk1@dhl.com and ‘Reminder: Shipment status change for package # 82274150′ from: “USPS 2015″ usps2015@idealtrading.pk are being sent.

(3) The “Congratulations you won a gift card!” … Not!: Here are some of the scam emails we have seen offering cash for the holidays:

Incoming email ‘Apple Store Gift Card’ From “Apple AppStore” washbowlsnm531@gmail.com

It is safe to say that washbowlsnm531 probably isn’t an Apple employee…

And here are two classic spam emails we have all probably seen before:

‘You WON best buy gift card 500$’ from Best Buy newsmrlt@stopitenter.com

‘AMAZON e-giftcard 100$’ from “Amazone.it” user_enter@absoftmilano.it

(4) The holiday e-card! – from your favorite Cyber Criminal: We discovered multiple emails claiming to contain a Hallmark e-card from various “Hallmark” email addresses, but we took a closer look and found that most e-card and online gifting services send out greetings from the sender’s email address, not from the company’s email addresses.

(5) Scam Holiday e-cards: These emails should be sent to you with your friend’s email address and if you are not sure, contact the service directly to confirm the email is safe.

Source: Avast