As the festive time approaches, McAfee is warning people to be on the look out for a whole host of scams and online attacks.

Ironically, the season of goodwill can be one of the most dangerous times to be online, as cybercriminals take advantage of the holiday season to steal consumers’ money, identities and personal and financial information.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Labs, said:
“Cybercriminals’ use their best schemes during the holidays to steal people’s money, credit card information, social security number and identity. These thieves follow seasonal trends and create holiday-related websites, scams and other convincing e-mails that can trick even the most cautious users.”

So McAfee have listed the top 12 scams of Christmas.

• Number one is the invidious charity phishing scam. At Christmas, many people’s minds turn to giving to charity and this is also the time when the number of phishing emails that seem genuine – but are in reality bogus and designed to steal donations, credit card information and the identities of donors – jump dramatically.
• Number two concerns companies who are extremely busy during the festive season with orders and aren’t always as observant as they should be. Cybercriminals are adept at sending out fake invoices and delivery notifications appearing to be from the large courier companies, but which are designed to obtain credit card details to credit back the account (money for nothing in effect), or require users to open an online invoice or customs form to receive the package. And once that is completed, the person’s information is stolen or malware is automatically installed on their computer.
• Number three is when cybercriminals exploit people on social networking websites. Christmas is a time when people often communicate and catch up on things, and as such, they are open to attack. Hackers send out genuine looking “New Friend Request” e-mails from social networking sites, but many users fail to realise that there are often platforms for all types of viruses.
• Number four is the popularity of holiday e-cards at this time of year. McAfee discovered last Christmas a worm masked as Hallmark e-cards and McDonald’s and Coca-Cola holiday promotions.
• Number five is about offers that appear to be a really good deal. Recently McAfee uncovered a new holiday campaign that leads shoppers to malware-ridden sites offering luxury gifts from Cartier, Gucci, and Tag Heuer with apparent huge discounts. The products never existed of course, but the cybercriminals use such tactics to part people with their personal and financial details, and then their money.
• Number six – online shopping has exploded over the recent years, but those people who use hotspots (found in cafes, airports and hotels) should be careful if they make purchases then and there. Users on open hotspots can be spied by hackers who can then steal personal and financial information. McAfee reminds people that they should never shop online from a public computer or on an open Wi-Fi network.
• Number seven is another scam which dispassionately exploits people at Christmas. Those searching for a holiday ringtone or wallpaper, Christmas carol lyrics, or a festive screensaver, can be directed towards bogus websites which contain files, to be downloaded, that infect a user’s computer with spyware, adware or other malware.
• Number eight is another scam which targets people who are especially vulnerable. Out of work people can become especially desperate in the approach to a holiday season to try and obtain work, in order to afford Christmas. Cybercriminals are quick to promise of high-paid jobs and work-from-home moneymaking opportunities. But, of course, once interested persons submit their information and pay their “set-up” fee, hackers steal their money instead.
• Number nine is scams which involve cybercriminals preying on auction sites which become especially busy during the holiday periods. The solution here is for buyers to be very cautious about what goods they are buying and who from. Basically, if it looks a great deal, then be sceptical.
• Number ten is a perennial problem: the password stealers. To do most things on the internet requires a password; anyone who copies that password can then masquerade as a particular person, download their financial and personal details, and even order goods on their behalf. Passwords are stolen in a number of ways, not least pieces of code, malware, which record keystrokes and key logging activities. These can then be used to calculate a given password.
• Number eleven is another perennial: email banking scams which tend to increase during a holiday period, as the logic goes that people are more anxious to ensure they don’t get locked out of their account during busy purchasing times. It involves tricking customers in revealing their bank details by sending official-looking e-mails from financial institutions. The email, which is usually quite a good copy of the real thing, asks users to confirm their account information, including a user name and password, with a warning that their account will become invalid if they do not comply.
• Number twelve is the increasingly used ransom scam. Using several holiday scams, hackers gain control of people’s computers and then act as virtual kidnappers to hijack computer files and encrypt them, making them unreadable and inaccessible. The scammer’s pitch is then simple: pay me money and I will release your computer’s files. Straightforward and effective, but particularly nasty.

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

Don’t be fooled by technicians from India claiming they must clean up a computer virus on your PC otherwise your Microsoft warranty will be invalidated.

It’s happened to a number of people in Australia and could be coming to the UK. It’s a simple and effective con. A person cold calls – believed to be from India – and states your PC is infected by computer viruses. They infer that they are working alongside Microsoft and that unless you take action, the warranty on your Microsoft software will be revoked.

The charge for this ‘clean-up’ is around £200; a huge boggling sum, bearing in mind antivirus software costing at most £40 would be all that was needed to fix any computer viruses on your machine. But most computers targeted by these callers naturally have no virus problems.

And once your credit card payment has cleared they, with your permission, take remote control of your computer and a box appears which says that your computer is now virus free.

Of course, it’s a con and once the £200 is taken, a small file is downloaded onto your computer via the remote control which displays a virus clear-up box on your screen. All very simple and all very effective.

And the callers have no connection with Microsoft whatsoever, who are at pains to point out that they would never cold call a customer an ask for control of their system; nor do they employ, or ask other firms to do so.

What worries a number of computer security experts is that the remote control part of the con might really be trying to achieve, as all manners of computer viruses could be downloaded and secretly installed in that period of time.

So, be warned, if someone rings up and says that your computer has viruses, don’t be tempted to ask ‘…how do you know that…’, just put the phone down? If they call again, ask them for their contact details, as you are sure the police would like to know of their plans.

What to do if you have been a victim of the computer virus scam

If you have been unfortunate enough to have been conned by this computer virus scam, or one similar, you may now actually have a virus on your PC. To ensure you remove any harmful copmuter viruses the scammers may have left on your PC, during the brief time they had access to your computer, make sure your antivirus software is up to date with the latest virus definitions. If your computer does not have computer virus protection you will need to get some fast to prevent the scammers doing any more harm. Read our latest anti virus reviews or visit our shop for the latest antivirus discounts.

Guest Article by Neil Camp