Despite hostilities, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year still remain days when we experience childlike excitement in anticipation of surprises and miracles. But at the same time, we also spend time searching for promotions and discounts offered during the holidays, like real adults.
These are pleasant moods and worries, but you always need to be careful. Fraudsters also understand our condition well and try to profit from it.
Unexpected package
This is a new deal that the cyber police are warning . An SMS is sent to your phone indicating the parcel has arrived at the post office. But - here's the problem! – the parcel will be sent back (taken to a warehouse, storage will be charged) because the sender indicated your address incorrectly, and to clarify it you need to follow the link.
The calculation is simple: even if you don’t expect gifts from anyone, there may be a friend, relative, or neighbor in the country that you forgot about, but he doesn’t. And he wants to give a bottle of champagne or a jar of homemade jam as a sign of friendship.
This is banal phishing - catching data scammers with an emotional hook. If you follow the link, in order to receive the parcel you will be asked to confirm your first and last name, card number, and provide the CVV code and expiration date for certainty.
Note: the “postmen” will not even ask for a PIN code, that is, there will be no access to the money, and this can be reassuring. But! As soon as you provide the required information, purchases will begin using your card. If you yourself have paid for orders and services via the Internet, remember how simple it is.
By the time you come to your senses and block the card, all your savings may be withdrawn from it.
Bonuses for regular customers
To gain access to the victim’s accounts, criminals usually rely on alarming emotions: “your card is blocked,” “outside interference has been detected,” etc. The “head of the bank’s security service” may call or receive an SMS asking you to go to a site that imitates a banking resource, but is actually a fraudulent resource. So they try to find out the PIN code from the account owner or send a one-time password, which will be the key to your account.
Around the holidays, everything is the other way around - they play on the positive. The “manager” calls or writes and reports that the bank’s regular customers have a New Year’s bonus of 300 hryvnia. Or a 70% discount at the spa, lamb tying or a pink pony... The form of the gift does not matter, because the content is the same - receive data, and with it access to the card.
Deceptive charity
Fake charitable assistance allegedly from well-known international organizations and charitable foundations, also timed to coincide with the holidays, can be used as a hook. Such messages are aimed simply at “Ukrainians affected by the war” or at certain groups, for example, internally displaced persons, pensioners, and the poor.
The “philanthropists” will not require confirmation of their involvement with the victims or the poor, but they will ask for personal information and bank accounts.
Alternatively, they will promise to transfer you 2000 - 3000 hryvnia to the account that you open using such and such a link. This is no longer a hunt for money, but for personal data - passport, personal code, pension card number, disability ID card. They can be used in various schemes: collecting money on your behalf, processing loans or fictitious enterprises.
Lotteries, drawings
“Congratulations! The “Happy Home” loyalty program is pleased to announce that a win has been received on your phone number...” Or: “Mrs. Ekaterina, you have become the winner of the lottery...” And it doesn’t matter that you didn’t participate in any drawing. Miracles can happen on New Year's Eve. It’s no coincidence that the “good fairies” call you, they know your name and age (the fact that you filled out a form for a savings card in a supermarket is somehow forgotten at such moments).
If you get hooked, there are options. Either the same phishers attack, or the businessmen are drawn into a gambling quest.
For example, they will tell you that your winnings are 50,000 UAH, but you must first receive a parcel at the post office, for which you will pay 300 UAH. They will even tell you the address closest to your home (and the same supermarket), and the package will arrive there! If you take the risk of receiving it, there may be a cheap book inside, a bar of soap, a set of disposable plates, or any other unnecessary thing, to which is added a certificate confirming your winnings. But there is a condition: to get it, you need to buy a frying pan, kettle, coffee maker or something else on this site. And so that you don’t hesitate too much, for all this, your winnings will increase by 20%.
The site is quite real, and so are the products. In the next package, along with your purchase, you will receive another “certificate” and a list of items that have yet to be purchased.
The scheme has been known since the 90s, but is still effective, especially for women. On social networks you can find stories about housewives who themselves spent up to 50,000 - paying twice the price for cheap goods, just to increase their imaginary winnings.
Promotions, sales
Here they are already hunting for us, but rather, we ourselves are climbing into a trap. After all, it’s hard to get rid of the temptation when you see a good thing at a price almost twice as low as on ordinary days. New Year's promotions and sales really exist, but you just have to remember which ear comes out of a cheap fish.
For a “full sale” or “holiday promotion,” scammers create fake websites or copy the websites of well-known online stores. There are also two options: for goods with significant discounts, they ask for an advance payment or not.
If you agreed to transfer 30% of the cost of, say, a tablet, be mentally prepared that you will not receive the parcel. And you won’t contact the seller, because your number will be blocked.
Purchasing without prepayment seems more reliable, this is true, but there may be nuances here too. You receive a package, pay for your purchase at the post office, come home, and the tablet does not turn on. Or a set of underwear that looked like a doll in the picture has holes. You can send what you purchased back, but whether you will get the money back is a question.
The fact is that in wholesale quantities of goods there are sometimes defective items. Business people buy them for pennies, sell them online under advertising promotions and close the site.
The calculation is based on the fact that at the post office people do not check equipment, do not disassemble well-packaged kits and believe that their rights as consumers will be respected.
How to protect yourself
These tips are not new , but it's worth remembering:
- You cannot click on unknown links received via SMS, email or instant messengers.
If it's not phishing, it's probably a virus. When it comes to sending, the message must indicate the number and address of the post office. You can call and make sure it's not a scam. - Do not give your bank card information to anyone under any circumstances. Especially its CVV code and expiration date. Do not send codes and passwords anywhere that you receive from unknown sources.
- For online shopping, it is better to use a separate card that is not linked to a bank phone number. And put on it only the amount of money that you plan to spend, for example, during the week.
- The bank does not give out cash bonuses - neither when the manager calls on the phone, nor when such an SMS arrives. And he doesn’t give it away at all. Via SMS they can only inform about the accrual of interest on deposits and advertise promotions. This advertisement must match the advertisements on the banks' websites.
- If you have not participated in lotteries, then, accordingly, you cannot win anything. Only lose. There is no money that can just fall on your head.
- If you are attracted by a sale, carefully study the site, the domain name, and check when it was created. Read reviews about the store on independent services or social networks. If there are no reviews at all or only laudatory ones, it is better to refuse the purchase. And if you have already bought it, check the contents of the parcel at the post office.
