Online Holiday Shopping Scams

Original release date: November 24, 2020

With more commerce occurring online this year, and with the holiday season upon us, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reminds shoppers to remain vigilant. Be especially cautious of fraudulent sites spoofing reputable businesses, unsolicited emails purporting to be from charities, and unencrypted financial transactions.

CISA encourages online holiday shoppers to review the following resources.

• CISA’s Online Shopping Tip
• CISA’s Holiday Online Shopping page
• CISA’s Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks Tip
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) ‘Tis the Season for Holiday Online Shopping Scams – Don’t Be a Victim Announcement

If you believe you are a victim of a scam, consider the following actions.

• Report the incident to your local police, and file online reports at the Federal Trade Commission’s Report Fraud page and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) page.
• Watch for unexpected or unexplained charges to your account. If any appear, contact your financial institution immediately and close any accounts that may have been compromised. See CISA’s Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft Tip for more information.
• Change any passwords you might have revealed immediately. Avoid reusing passwords. See CISA’s Choosing and Protecting Passwords Tip for more information.

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