Urgent Christmas warning for anyone who owns an iPhone or Android

GADGET users are warned of dangerous Christmas scams – don’t get caught.

Cyber ​​experts warn of five common downsides and how to avoid them.

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Christmas is a popular time for scams: people are cheerful and ready to spend money.

But that means you have to be on high alert or you could fall for a dangerous ruse.

“The Christmas season is a very tempting time for shopping. However, with this encouragement comes an opportunity for scammers to prey on people’s willingness to spend,” said Ariana Bag, fraud analyst at Proxyrack.

“With that in mind, it’s important to remain vigilant and aware of potential scams that might come your way.”

Five common scams to watch out for

The first common online scam is related to suspicious links.

You may receive these via email or SMS on your iPhone or Android device.

But if it doesn’t seem legitimate, don’t click on it.

Always verify that the sender’s phone number or email address matches the company they claim to be from.

Next are Browser Extensions – which are often safe, but not always.

You might be tempted by a “money-saving” browser extension.

But these can often be designed by scammers to steal your private information.

third is billing fraud. This is where someone sends you a message pretending to be a company you bought something from.

They often claim that your payment failed and you need to update your information immediately.

“The best way to avoid losing money from this form of fraud is to contact the company or your bank directly to request more information about this issue,” said cyber expert Ariana.

“These scams are often associated with a sense of urgency that says you will miss out on business and savings if you don’t provide the details right away – this is another sign that these claims are bogus.”

Fourth is unknown websitesbecause scammers often create fake pages that offer products at very cheap prices.

However, this is usually a ploy to steal your banking information.

“It’s also important to be careful about the websites you order from. The offers can look great until you realize they’re actually a way for scammers to access your personal and banking information,” Ariana explained.

“Check the website URL before ordering anything to make sure it’s the official company page and if you don’t recognize the company name I would recommend avoiding it entirely.”

Fifth and last, be careful Verification code scam.

In this case, hackers are trying to get your two-factor authentication code, which you can use to log into websites.

They could impersonate a company—or even a friend or family member—and ask for your code.

Never share a verification code that you received via SMS with anyone. It’s almost always a scam.

Remember: the trusted person you think is asking for your code may have been hacked themselves.

Selected image source: Android / Unsplash / The Sun

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