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Scammers, however, are also busy beefing up their efforts to steal your money over the festive season.
It’s crucial to stay vigilant at all times during your Christmas shopping.
Christmas scams red flags
1.
Of course, these incidents are likely to become more frequent during the Christmas shopping rush.
Also, you should be skeptical of requests for personal information or payment details at an early stage.
Now, scammers utilize interactive ads to capture shoppers' attention.
Fake shops
Fake shops are becoming increasingly widespread online and more and more convincing.
This is because cybercriminals now use generative AI tools, likeChatGPT, to craft convincing scams and dodgy websites.
Looking at the domain name is another good way to verify if the store is legit.
Other characteristics of malicious websites include an amateurish design, grammar mistakes, and poor spelling.
Hence, beware of unsolicited messages especially when you cannot recognize the sender.
Again, it’s very unlikely for companies to give away free products even during Christmas time.
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Two independent audits even recently confirmed it to be thetop tool to block malicious sites.
Even better, these services are often free to use, including the ones developed by NordVPN andIPVanish.
Enablingtwo-factor authenticationis also crucial to minimize the risk of your account getting compromised.