‘Tis the Season for Scams

This report educates consumers on heightened holiday-season scams and social engineering, covering SMSishing, phishing, fake online stores, credential theft pages, and push-notification survey schemes. It explains common tactics (unbelievable deals, urgency, scare/emotional appeals, typosquatting, suspicious payment methods), offers practical verification and payment safety tips, highlights example lures (e.g., fake Shopify shops, OneDrive credential phishing, gaming-credit scams), and provides guidance on mitigation and reporting to authorities.