Let's not go "Phishing" this Holiday Season!

This year’s Holiday season is upon us!  As we get ready to eat our Thanksgiving turkey, the news is all a jingle with buzz about Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other online deals people will be scouring the internet for this year's seasonal spending.  But, there are unscrupulous people all-too-happy to put coal in your stockings in exchange for your hard earned cash - including those on the internet.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels

When going to retailers' webpages, make sure you are on “their” cite!  Look out for webpages whose URL is slightly off from the legitimate webpage.  For example, www.thetechsavvylawyer.page may have a Doppler ganger of sorts like www.thettechsavylawyer.page (notice the two “tt”s for tech and the missing “v” in savvy?) or www.thetechsavvylawyer.net (my website is “.page” not “.net”.  The wrong link could go to a page that looks similar to mine but whose owner is all-too-happy to take your money without giving you what you ordered.

This misdirection is commonly referred to “phishing”.  Get it?  Its like “fishing” except you’re not going to real in fish, the scammer is going to real in your money!

A common way for scammer to cast its bait is to send you e-mails offering you a great deal.  The e-mail looks kinda legit?  But, something is slightly off in its presentation.  You need to keep an eye on detail.  The graphics, the wording, the spelling, etc.  Check the e-mail address of the sender, if its not right, junk it.

The best rule of thumb is if you get a “great” deal from an e-mail, just go to the site directly (don’t click on provided links).  If the deal is legit, it should be there.  If its not and you still think its legit, call the company.  If the deal was too good to begin with, then you save yourself the aggravation of contacting your credit card company to file a credit card fraud report.

Happy Holidays and Happy On-Line Shopping!!!