Online Holiday Shopping Scams

December 1, 2020

From the Desk of Brian M. Hughes, Vice President/IT Director

With more commerce occurring online this year, and with the holiday season upon us, The First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown reminds shoppers to remain vigilant. Be especially cautious of fraudulent sites spoofing reputable businesses, unsolicited emails purporting to be from charities, and unencrypted financial transactions. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has made these recommendations that I wanted to share with you.

CISA encourages online holiday shoppers to review the following resources:

CISA's Online Shopping Tip
CISA's Holiday Online Shopping Page
CISA's Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks Tip
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) 'Tis the Season for Holiday Online Shopping Scams - Don't Be a Victim Announcement

If you believe you are a victim of a scam, consider the following actions:

Report the incident to your local police, and file online reports at the Federal Trade Commission’s Report Fraud Page and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) page.
Watch for unexpected or unexplained charges to your account. If any appear, contact your financial institution immediately and close any accounts that may have been compromised. See CISA’s Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft Tip for more information.
Change any passwords you might have revealed immediately. Avoid reusing passwords. See CISA’s Choosing and Protecting Passwords Tip for more information.

We want to wish you a very Happy and Safe Holiday Season!