Holiday Shopping Scams to Avoid

Scam alert –  Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays – and there’s no place like online for holiday shopping scams.

These are the top frauds and phishing schemes to know about and avoid this holiday season, and year-round.

Buyer beware of these efforts to rip you off and ruin you holiday.

Some of these scams are year-round and become extra-active during gift-buying season.

Remember the rule – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

General rules to avoid online scams –

• Check the sender’s spelling and grammar carefully before you respond.
• Do not click on any links.  
• Always go to the official website of a business allegedly contacting you.
• Beware of so-called urgent words like “Important’,  “Critical to Respond” or even “Urgent” designed to get us to drop our guard and respond without thinking.  

Examples of fraudulent emails I’ve received recently – perhaps you have, too:

• Macys instead of Macy’s with an apostrophe, and Lowes without its apostrophe.
• M-A-C-Y-S-Gift is so blatantly fraudulent I can’t imagine anybody dumb enough to send it – or click on it.
• Fedex instead of FedEx
• Paypal instead of PayPal.
• Amazn instead of Amazon.
• walmart instead of Walmart.
• Tmobile instead of T-Mobile.
• -Delta instead of Delta, which does not use a dash in front of its name.
• Icloud instead of iCloud, telling me my account “has suspended” instead of has been susupended
• emails from “UPS tracking”, “UPS.tracking”, “UPS_Delivery”, “UPS 2023” and “UPS.Service” instead of simply from UPS.
• emails saying my package would be returned “if I didn’t respond promptly”.  Incorrect grammar – it should be if I don’t respond promptly.  So I didn’t.
• why would a sender @diseasekidney.shop send me an email from Costco that I my order had shipped?
• of course this is the address Kroger uses to send me an invitation to win a gift card: y2d8c4qpju1vk18+.-z0d7kpabt8jzb4sg@comcast.net

Thank You For Your Order Scams

Fraudsters take advantage of our online shopping habit, especially around the holidays, when we order gifts for ourselves, family and friends.

My computer is sooooooo protected.  I have no worries, since I have received dozens of emails re my new orders or renewals for The Geek Squad, Norton anti-virus software and McAfee anti-virus software.

My latest is from a “rosellagamble2”, who obviously has nothing to do with any legitimate online entity, most especially not The Geek Squad, Norton or McAfee.

And DHL wants $2.95 to deliver the package it’s been holding for me, according to a sender with no DHL in its email address.

How to Avoid:

• Check the URL.  
• Don’t click on the URL

Fake Deals on Gaming Consoles

Scammers advertise incredible deals for popular consoles such as XBOX and PlayStation on social media and via direct emails.

If you click the link, it takes you to a fraudulent look-a-like website of a major brand. Any gifts purchased will never arrive.

How to Avoid:

• Triple check the spelling of the URL.
• Fake sites are often one letter off, or a Capital Letter where lower case letter should be.

Fake Gift Card Scams

Gift cards are a great holiday gift, and people can save money by purchasing gift cards from resale sites like GiftCards.com.

However, scammers are on these sites selling gift cards that arrive with no balance, because the usage dates have expired.

How to Avoid:

• Do a reverse search before buying gift cards from questionable sites  to verify their identity.
• Beware of scammers posing as friends or relatives asking you to buy gift cards for them
• Never pay by Zelle or Venmo

See Also

List of 2023 Holiday Gift Card Bonus Deals

Social Media Holiday Deals

Scammers advertise holiday deals on sites like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Once you click on the link, it takes you to a look-a-like website of a major brand, however, it is fraudulent, and any gifts purchased will never arrive and credit card or bank information will be stolen.

How to Avoid:

• If the social media account claims to be from a major brand but has few followers it is a scam.
• If the account has only five-star posts, and all of them recent, it is a scam

Romance Scams

During the holidays, many of us feel lonely, whether or not we are surrounded by family, and turn online looking for connection.

Romance scammers are especially active around two holidays – Christmas/New Year’s and Valentine’s Day.

They often use stolen photos of an attractive suitor, often in military uniform, shower you with love and affection, and begin asking for money.

How to Avoid:

• Perform a reverse image search to confirm their identity.

Social Media Influencer Free Holiday Giveaways

Scammers create fake Tik Tok and Instagram accounts to impersonate popular social media influencers.

They offer free product giveaways and include a link to redeem the product. It is a phishing link that steals all of your data.

How to Avoid:

• Fake accounts have few followers and/or spelling errors.

Fake Shipping Notifications

Scammers take advantage of  the increased number of packages delivered during the holidays by emailing or texting a delivery notification with a “tracking link” or notice there’s a problem with delivery.

Ditto for emails from the Geek Squad or similar advising that your subscription has been renewed – I get a few of those a week all year, and it ramps up to a few a day during the holiday season. This is a phishing link used for identity theft.

How to Avoid:

• Track packages only on the official UPS, USPS, DHL, Amazon or FedEx websites.

Secondhand Store Scams

Consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are increasingly buying discounted holiday gifts from secondhand stores such as The RealReal and Poshmark.

Scammers are on these sites offering amazing deals if you pay off the App via gift cards or cash apps.

How to Avoid:

• • Most resale sites have solid security policies if you pay within the App
  • Avoid paying by Zelle or Venmo

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Fake Puppy Sites

Who doesn’t love a sweet puppy?  The scammers know this and take advantage.

According to BBB data, nearly 10,000 scam reports and complaints have come in during the last three years about “businesses” selling puppies and dogs.

The FTC estimates that only about 10 percent of victims report these crimes, so this number could be much higher.

How to Avoid:

• Ask for proof, including information about the puppys parents (sire/dam) photos and/or video of the puppy you want to buy
• Avoid any seller who asks for payment in advance, especially via unprotected sites such as Venmo and Zelle. or via a gift card
• Beware of additional charges such as a climate-controlled crate for shipping, insurance, etc.
• Check the AKC (American Kennel Club) website for more warning signs and tips.

Check Your Credit Card Bill

Always keep receipts, at least until you receive your bill, just in case there’s a fraudulent charge.

All the credit card companies have systems for disputing a charge.

How to Avoid:

• Beware of extra charges for an additional item you did not purchase.  
• Beware of extra charges on something you did purchase, that the merchant added after you left the store.
• These are often small – $25 or less – in the hopes you won’t notice.

Reporting a Scam

Find more online shopping advice on the federal government’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency website.

If you are the victim of a scam or attempted scam report it to the FTC, IC3, FBI and IdentityTheft.gov.

This article was published originally in 2022 and has been updated for the 2023 holiday shopping season.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 20+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter currently serves as President of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA), a former Board Member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and a current member of the North American Travel Journalists Assn. (NATJA) and the North American Snowsports Journalists Assn. (NASJA).

Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.

Copyright (C) Evelyn Kanter