Ahhh gift cards, the easy, no hassle way to give a gift that the recipient can purchase what they desire, yet another way that cyber criminals are taking advantage of unsuspecting people. Did you know that the most popular wish list item is a gift card?
Here's how the gift card scam works. Let's say you are a new employee, you get an email from your boss asking you to purchase gift cards to celebrate a win on a big project. You're new, you don't want to question the big guy!
What you don't know, is that the request is actually a phishing email from a cyber criminal pretending to be your boss.
This scam can also seem like it's coming from a good friend or even family members. So, if it sounds like a strange request, it probably is.
-
Call to verify the request and sender.
-
Don’t open gift cards from people you don’t know, they could be a virus!
-
Don't scratch the codes and email, text, or give them away over the phone.
-
No company, government entity, bank, or business will ever ask you to pay with a gift card.
Got a minute? See how gift card scams work by watching the short security awareness video below! For more videos like this register free to our CyberSecurity Awareness Program
