As you make your holiday shopping list this year, take time to make sure you’re shopping safely.
You can keep your holiday shopping merry and bright by following a few of our tips for protecting your personal and financial information:
Black Friday
- Keep track of your purchases. Big shopping holidays with deal-crazed shoppers are the perfect target for identity theft! If you don’t recognize a charge on your bank statement, contact us right away.
Cyber Monday
- Beware of email/text scams about sales. Think before clicking the link. Many times hackers will send a fake link and your device will download spyware when clicked.
- Shop only on secure websites with an “https” address.
- Never make purchases online over a public WiFi network. Information shared on these networks can potentially be accessed by someone else and can get into the wrong hands.
- Check out our previous blog post on keeping your financial information safe online.
Giving Tuesday
- While lots of us are in the holiday giving spirit, unfortunately, some are more eager to receive than give — even if it means making up a charity for money. Be cautious of fake charities on platforms like GoFundMe. You can verify a charity by searching it on give.org, the website for the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance (WGA).
- Charity scams often use fake names that sound like a real charity. Make sure you do your research and verify that the charity is valid.
Contact us if you have any questions about protecting your financial information this holiday season.
