Holiday fraud

Phishing, which is just the fancy word for Email Scams or SMS Scams, is a classic in a busy Christmas season. For many of us, there will be some online shopping, some Christmas calendars and much more that happens where we give away both e-mail address and other things to get what we want. Unfortunately, if one is not observant enough, really stubborn fraud attempts and actual loss of valuable information or money can occur. Holidays are said to be the time we bulk up our cars the most, and the same can be said about successful fraud attempts.

This type of scam is cunning and greedy. The goal is usually to cash out some of the money you are going to spend on Christmas ribs and feel free to taste a little of the half tax salary you have just received. Fortunately, with a little practice you can prevent falling into the trap of scammers.

We've written about phishing before! Have you read that? Then we took a look in our own email to see what fraud attempts were there.

Avoid scams with the most important rule of thumb for Christmas

We can get started, but the most important thing is a simple rule of thumb: Double check (and preferably triple check) ALWAYS before you give away your information.

This applies to SMS, it applies to email and generally surfaces where ordinary and some unusual actors can get in touch. Some attempts can be easy to detect, while some can be so well masked that you take it for granted that it is true.

Our best example is when the scammers use Posten / Bring as the sender. Often during busy holidays, when the chances are high that you are waiting or sending packages, then an email or SMS often appears.

It may sound as follows:

"Hi. Your package is on its way. We just need some information about you. Please fill in the following info on the link below to get the package in time to the correct delivery location. Greetings Posten.

Fill in here: https://posteen.no/fyllinninfoher »

Sounds pretty good, right? Check again!

Actors rarely ask for information about you. Then you will get more official contact points or end up discovering it yourself (in our experience). Therefore: double check and triple check that it may be real that they need information from you. A rule of thumb may be that it is rarely!

We wish you a very merry and fraud-free Christmas!