Look Out For Holiday Scams

welcome back to another episode of cappuccino chat this time we're talking about those holiday scams that come this time of year all right we're talking about holiday scams again and yes this video is coming out a little late but my uh newsletter article came out sooner to give you that heads up now I know I talk about this every year but every year it is worth repeating we need to make sure that we're educating ourselves and our employees so that we don't fall victim to these holiday scams because during this time we know that people are more stressed out a little bit busier trying to do last minute shopping etc etc etc and they're using work computers to do this they're not always on their cell phone or doing this at home so they're they're going to Amazon big one right Apple Best Buy Costco Sam's Club all those different places and ordering different things as the deals come up again A lot of times are doing this on business computers now when they do this on business computers and they also check their personal email for that all important confirmation they're kind of bypassing some of the security you have in place or at least should have in place again you're not watching and scanning and protecting their personal email like you are the business email or at least you should be so again we want to make sure they're not bypassing your Security on your work computers now if it's on their cell phone you know hey hopefully nothing bad happens to them but during the workday if they receive an email a text which a lot of the scams are now coming via text saying that their package is delayed or there's an issue with their order or whatever the case might be people are going to be more likely with the stress and last minute shopping to click that link which again could compromise your network or their device either way it's not good for you because if your employee is dealing with an issue for someone getting into their bank account stealing their credit card information maxing out stuff you know draining their bank accounts they're not going to be as productive at work when you need them to be their mind is going to be elsewhere so we want to make sure we're helping educate them both for their personal lives and their business lives so we need to make sure that they slow down when they get these things again Microsoft others Amazon they are typically not going to text your cell phone right um USPS knowing that your package has been delayed or UPS they don't get your cell phone number to text you so how would they be able to text you so beware of these they may look like uh it's coming from legit places but again those weird links that are in there open up and go absolutely anywhere they need to slow down and read completely the links people can misspell a word but our minds will fix it and correct it when we're looking at it so we'll see what we want to see and we won't realize we just went to a malicious link so we if it seems suspicious if it seems like urgent do this now or for your your package will never show up they're trying to get you to raise that stress level to rush through and not think right the other thing is employees really should not be using your business computers for personal reasons so they shouldn't be going to Amazon to shop for their personal stuff they shouldn't be going to Best Buy Sam's Cub Costco they shop for personal stuff or checking on their orders or doing whatever that is a way that you're opening up your network for a possible breach so when you can inforce let them use their personal cell phone if that's what they need to do do not have them working on personal items checking personal email on business computers a number one two for everybody involved if they get one of those items that says your order was but it's not specific on which order again that's a Telltale sign that it is a scam trying to get you to click on something but if they're more specific like Amazon like who doesn't order from Amazon during the holiday season they should not click a link you should not click a link you should go to your personal device since this is a personal reason unless you're ordering for the business actually you go to Amazon you type it in don't click a link that they gave you don't go whatever go to amazon.com log in with your account click on your order check on it that's the proper way to do it because if there is an issue with your order and whatever you got an email a text whatever was legit you should see that same information now when you log in directly to the amazon.com website if not your suspicions were confirmed and what you received was a scam so never ever ever click on the link yes we're all worried about our last minute shopping and orders go directly to the website where you place that order and log in directly do not click links of anything that anybody sent you go to your web browser type in dubdub dub. best.com dubdub dub. amazon.com log into your account put in your order number find it out that way do not click that stuff so by logging directly into the Retailer's website again they'll most likely see that there is no issue confirm that it's a scam and crisis was diverted their personal information wasn't compromised and your business Network wasn't comprom compromised all good so again let's make sure that everybody is safe during the holiday seasons uh we got Christmas New Year's we had Thanksgiving uh New Year's um we've got you know Easter coming up after that in April any of the holiday seasons these scams come out they just come out more towards Thanksgiving Christmas time because we do more shipping um shopping around that time with Black Friday month I think now it is it used to be a day now I think it's a month so they know we're doing a lot of shopping they know we're doing a lot of stuff they know we're looking for a lot of last minute packages and that's what they're trying to get us to do so be safe this holiday season and always as always if you have any questions about this how to protect yourself how to protect your business please reach out to us by calling the office 76077 52