Tips to remain Safe From Online Scams and Fake Charities

Every year, thousands of people become victims of holiday scams. The Better Business Bureau recently released the top scams to be on guard against in the 2021 holiday season, including:

•Illegitimate Websites- where criminals online set up fraudulent websites designed to collect personal information and direct payments.

•Package Delivery Scams- scammers will often send text messages that look like they’re from a legitimate mail or package courier, like FedEx, and include a fake tracking link.

•Fake Charities- hackers will often rush people into making a donation at year-end or trick them by thanking them for a donation they never paid for and then asking for payment.

Hank Schless, senior manager of security solutions at Lookout, gave a few tips on how to stay safe online.

The first is to exercise caution when sharing personal information: Be especially wary of communication (emails, texts, and phone calls) asking you to update your password or account information. Look up the company’s phone number on your own and call the company directly.

Avoid paying for items with prepaid gift cards: In these scams, a merchant may ask you to send them a gift card number and PIN. Instead of using that gift card for your payment, the scammer will steal the funds, and you’ll never receive your item. Instead, use a credit card when shopping online and check your statement regularly. If you see a suspicious transaction, contact your credit card company to dispute the charge.

Stop before you click: If you are not confident that a message is from a legitimate source, avoid clicking on links or attachments in emails, on websites, or on social media.

Finally, run advanced security protection on your mobile devices: Such as Lookout’s security, privacy & identity application – that automatically monitors and identifies scam URLs in email, text messages, and on the web and blocks you from threats that can do harm.

Lookout helps protect people’s digital information on devices, apps, online services, and the networks people connect to. Lookout also continuously monitors the internet to ensure what matters to their customer the most – such as social security and credit card numbers – aren’t exposed. And if anything happens, Lookout’s team of experts and a $1 million identity theft insurance policy are there to back people up.

All consumers can scan their email for FREE on Lookout’s website to learn about breaches that may have occurred & take action to secure their data. Lookout delivers integrated security, privacy, and identity theft protection solutions, to provide the steps that consumers can take to help stay safe while shopping online.