Be aware of increased risk of fraudulent links during the holiday season.
Security is of the utmost importance to us, and we take these potential scams very seriously. We want you to know what to look for and how you can avoid being a victim of fraud.
What to Know
Unfortunately, during the holiday season instead of spreading joy, fraudsters use digital shopping against us. Especially this holiday season with supply chain issues continuing and consumers feeling the stress of getting those special gifts. There will be an increase in fraudulent ads on social media and websites claiming to have those items. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. You should not buy items from unknown sites and instead purchase from known vendors.
What to Do
- When shopping online, only use known retailers. Don’t be tempted to click on Facebook or other social media ads which claim to have those "must-have" gifts. Those ads can be used to lure you to a fraudulent website that looks like the real thing where they may take your money without delivering products or download malicious software onto your phone or computer to gain access to your accounts.
- Do not give personal information to anyone who contacts you. Banks, stores and government offices will not call, email, or text you unexpectedly to verify your personal information. Do not give out your bank account, debit account, login IDs, passwords, or other account information.
- Practice secure online habits:
- Do not open attachments or click links within emails from senders you don't recognize.
- Do not provide your username, password, date of birth, Social Security number, financial data or other personal information in response to an email or robocall.
- Instead of clicking a suspicious link, always verify the URL of legitimate websites by manually typing them into your browser. When the legitimate URL is typed into a browser, in front of it will appear a lock icon and the letters “https.”
- Check for misspellings or wrong domains within a link. For example, notice if an address that should end in a ".gov" ends in ".com" instead.
Learn more about how we protect client information from fraud and theft at key.com/consumer-security.