Holiday Cyber Crime

What with classes, papers due, and upcoming exams, even those who want to shop in person may find it hard to visit the malls. So, are you planning on shopping online for holiday presents? The federal government's Internet Cyber Complaint Center (IC3), which is a partnership among the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, has some holiday shopping tips designed to protect you from those eager to relieve you of your money or steal your identity. For instance, here is the IC3's warning about buying gift cards online:

Be careful when purchasing gift cards through auction sites or classified ads. It is safest to purchase gift cards directly from the merchant or retail store. If the gift card merchant discovers that your card is fraudulent, the merchant will deactivate the gift card and refuse to honor it for purchases. Victims of this scam lose the money paid for the gift card purchase.

For more information about cyber scams, visit the FBI's E-Scams & Warnings webpage. You can sign up there to recieve email alerts about most recent scams by clicking on the red envelope at the top of the webpage.
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