The 12 Scams of Christmas

‘Tis the season! Time for family, friends, food, presents, festivities and crime!
Unfortunately, scams always seem to ramp up with everything else around the holidays. Luckily for us, the folks over at McAfee have posted some helpful tips for keeping safe!

Their list follows, with some commentary…

Scam 1: Charity Phishing Scams – Be Careful Who You Give To
It’s a low down, dirty game but this scam hits you when you deserve it the least (not that you ever deserve it, but you know what I mean). Watch out for emails claiming to be from a charitable organization. They might contain links to fake websites set up to steal your donations and/or personal information.

Scam 2: Fake Invoices from Delivery Services to Steal Your Money
This time of year, presents are getting shipped all over the country and cybercriminals are ready to take advantage. Watch out for fake invoices and delivery notifications. I always ask my friends and relatives to let me know when to expect packages. It protects me from scammers and is a clever way to hint that I want presents!

Scam III: Social Networking – A Cybercriminal “Wants to be Your Friend”
I know how flattering it is to think perfect strangers want to be friends, but beware. This year there are more fake profiles than ever. These scammers are out to install malware on your PC and steal your password. And you just wanted to be friends!

Scam IV: The Dangers of Holiday E-Cards
Happy Holidays! Celebrate with the gift of malware. ‘Tis the season!

Scam V: “Luxury” Holiday Jewelry Comes at a High Price
Not only isn’t it Prada, it doesn’t even exist! Pay for the faux luxury goods and get less than you paid for and by that I mean, nothing.

Scam VI: Practice Safe Holiday Shopping – Online Identity Theft on the Rise
According to McAfee, you should never shop online from an open Wi-Fi network or a public computer. To me this sounds like overkill, but I’m not taking any chances.

Scam VII: Christmas Carol Lyrics Can Be Dangerous – Risky Holiday Searches
Yep, that’s right folks, searching for the lyrics to your favorite holiday songs could be serious trouble. I can feel myself getting scroogier by the second.

Scam VIII: Out of Work – Job-Related E-mail Scams
As if being unemployed wasn’t enough, now you get to enjoy the wolves. Here I’ll repeat what you’ve probably heard many times before: If it sounds too good to be true, it’s a scam.

Scam IX: Outbidding for Crime – Auction Site Fraud
I’ve never experienced this one but I guess auction sites aren’t the safest places to hang out. I’m not sure why these are any worse than other scam product sites. Thoughts?

Scam X: Password Stealing Scams
If you always use the same password, cracking one can give a cybercriminal access to all of your accounts. Use different passwords whenever possible and change them often.

Scam XI: E-Mail Banking Scams
When you sign up for a new account at a bank, they always say they will NEVER ask for your password. This is true and it’s worth remembering. I make it a general rule never to click on links in emails, unless they’re from a friend that I trust. If you’re worried a bank email might be legit, type the bank’s URL into a web browser and search their site for details. I bet you won’t find any!

Scam XII: Your Files for Ransom – Ransomware Scams
A new scareware tactic encrypts your files and holds them ransom until you pay up to have them decrypted. What will they think of next?

It’s a scary Internet out there but you can protect yourself by keeping your security software up to date and your wits about you. Avoid strange links, don’t open weird attachments, and keep your chin up!

We hope you have a safe, happy and crime-free holiday!

-TurnKey Internet

As a girl working in the technology industry, I’ve got a lot of tech-obsessed buddies on my list this year. So, I’ve been paying pretty close attention to what’s new and exciting in the bright and shiny electronics world. At this point, I’m panicking. December is rolling on under me like a breakneck speedster and, well, I am completely overwhelmed by the stunning volume and variety of new tech gadgets: Nanos and Kindles and Androids in The Cloud or something? Not only don’t I know what my friends want, I don’t have time to figure out what everything even is! If you’re feelin’ me right now, then stay tuned, because I have the solutions to all of your tech gift-giving problems:

1) Web Hosting
2) Domain Names

In today’s world, many of us spend more time interacting in cyberspace than we do in originalspace. It’s where we socialize, do business and stay informed. As more and more people all over the world gain reliable, regular access to this global marketplace, online real estate will only become more and more vital and necessary in our everyday lives. What better gift at the holidays than a juicy plot of land in our global village? No matter what gadgets your friends have, they can always use online real estate.

Once you’ve got the house, you need an address. Giving the gift of a domain name, with web hosting or on its own, is a great inexpensive way to help your friends expand their online empires. Tell them to think of picking their domain like naming a band. That always helps me.

Whether your friends are techtastic like mine, or have always wanted a website but haven’t gotten around to setting one up, web hosting and domain names make excellent gifts. And, if you’re really ambitious, install WordPress and build a blog to get them started! Think of it as the ultimate holiday card.

Anneke Rudegeair
Marketing Director

While Cyber Monday has come and gone, all the studies show that the shopping season is far from over. In fact, we’re being told now that consumers will most likely continue to increase their spending through the end of the month. If you’re an online retailer, you will probably be seeing a steady increase in traffic to your website. As a former online retailer myself, I remember my greatest fear around this time of year: website slowdown, or worse! Today, as consumers expect faster and faster shopping experiences, this is an even scarier prospect. When the tiniest glitch during selection or check-out can send customers surfing, making sure your website is running at top speed is just smart business.

Take this snowy day (if you’re in the right half of the country) to have a look at your stats and, if they’re in the red, upgrade your service to handle the extra load. If you don’t have stats to look at, get in touch with your hosting provider and ask if your current plan could handle double the traffic it has now. If not: upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. Doubling your capacity might be overkill, but you only have do it once a year. Besides, the potential lost sales from a slow-down will more than pay for the upgrade.

If you don’t upgrade and your site goes down, I won’t say “I told you so” because I’m not that kind of girl… But I’ll be thinking it!

Anneke Rudegeair
Marketing Director

It’s a curious thing about people but, despite tough times, when it comes to gift giving we always feel generous. In hardcore, ramped-up holiday America, that makes us delicious morsels for anyone who is selling something. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the Marketing Director for a web hosting and web conferencing company: I’m selling something too. So, maybe don’t trust anything I say. But right now I’m putting on my hypocritical hat to balk at the maelstrom of advertisers all around me. I’m in an advertising soup. These noodles want my money! And, strangely enough, while one part of me is bothered by the assault, another part of me actually does want to buy stuff.

So, the question is: What advertising actually works? What cuts through the creamy broth? Where’s the beef? (And by that I mean sales.)

Personally, I appreciate an up-front, old-fashioned discount. What can I say? I enjoy a sale. But I don’t just want to feel like I’m getting something for less than I should be. As a consumer, I actually want it to be true. Needless to say, at the same time that I want an honest-to-goodness bargain, all those business-ladies out there still have to make a buck. So, you might ask, “Where, Anneke, do the twain meet?” Well, reader, I might answer: in the lovingly-crafted compromise.

Before you call me a Socialist (and I wouldn’t be mad if you did) remember: in tough economic times more than any other, it’s the returning customers that sustain your business. Loyalty leads to word-of-mouth and word-of-mouth leads to more customers (which leads to more word-of mouth, which leads to more customers… see where I’m going with this?) With big corporations leaning heavily on the tax-payer, honest, sustainable businesses have become an invaluable commodity in America. And in an age of social networks, reputation is more important and spreads faster than ever.

The focus-on-the-customer idea isn’t new. But the give-the-customer-a-real-discount-such-that-you-don’t-make-a-big-profit idea, is. I contend that the potential value of that customer’s positive experience outweighs your immediate monetary profit. Obviously you can’t run your business that way all year round or you’d never make a dime, but at the holidays in a tough economy, when customers are inundated with options and strapped for cash, your deep discounts will really matter. Allowing a customer to be able to afford your product or service at the holidays can make it possible for that customer to give a meaningful gift to a loved one. If that doesn’t engender loyalty, I don’t know what will. This is an honest, legitimate, practically and emotionally significant way to build your business.

In summary: providing unprecedented discounts can really set retailers apart in the mad scramble this season, and can set them up for unprecedented success in the new year.

Anneke Rudegeair
Marketing Director