CBC Blog

The holiday season brings with it many familiar things, such as cold weather, festive decorations, and shopping. Lots of shopping means exposure to more risks, including identity theft and credit card fraud. Black Friday marks the official start to the holiday shopping season. Read on for some of the risks you may face this holiday season and some tips to avoid these dangers.

Risks to your identity and financial security exist all year round, but the holidays offer a confluence of factors that increase the danger. Here are some examples.

The stores this time of year see a massive increase in traffic. Many shoppers try to knock out all their shopping at once, so they can be done with it. With all the other customers out doing the same thing, you will find yourself in loud places with lots of distractions, compounded by the need to constantly take out your wallet and put it away. Pickpockets, a threat most people don’t even think about, thrive in these situations. That moment you return your wallet to your pocket or purse leaves an opening for a thief to sweep in and steal it.

Protect yourself by being aware of your surroundings. Place wallets in your coat instead of in your pants. Constantly check to make sure your items remain where you put them.

Everyone loves a bargain, especially one they can get from the comfort of their living room. This time of year, everyone is clamoring for your money and offering deals wherever you shop. Emails campaigns flood inboxes and advertising abounds all over the internet. This offers online criminals a great opportunity to mix their own site into the noise in hopes of tricking you into giving away your personally identifiable information, including address, phone numbers, and credit card information.

Don’t open emails from vendors or people you don’t recognize. Set up your email to be accessed through a browser service, thus keeping any infected emails off your computer. Disable automatic image display to avoid sending a signal back to the criminal that your account is active. Never click on links in emails unless you are certain they are safe. Instead, go directly to the vendor’s site to look for the deal.

3. Free Wi-Fi = Exposure

Whenever people are out, they love to stay connected to their online world. Most people also love using someone else’s network to do so, thus saving their own data. These free networks offer little in security. Most stores offering the service place warnings on the page where you connect that warn of the lack of security. Additionally, a smart criminal could set up a free wi-fi hotspot designed to look like a legitimate hotspot, all in hopes of catching you completing a transaction on the scam network.

Never conduct any financial business on free networks and do not connect to any network that you can’t see official signs for in the store that tell you which network is legitimate.

4. Skimmers Love the Holidays

Many people use credit or debit cards to shop, and this is not different during the holidays. In fact, many people increase their spending habits. Criminals know this and have designed technology that mimics common points where you will insert your card to capture your card’s data when you use it. ATMs, gas pumps, and store card machines could have such devices installed. Some more ingenious criminals walk around with devices that scan for cards that, when the criminal is close enough, can steal the data by creating an image of the card.

Take a moment to examine any card slot, using your fingers to see if anything has been added to the machine. Consider buying a customized carrier for your cards that shield them from being pirated by scanning devices.