WIf Christmas didn't exist, fraudsters would have to invent it. In any other season, they try to gain the trust of their victims so that the money is easy. Then they create time pressure so that no one gets confused. Christmas takes this effort away from them: people are in a spending mood anyway. And, among all their other obligations, they have to organize a big banquet with dozens of gifts. You have Christmas stress.
A man from Lower Saxony was probably in this mood when he ordered a wet shaving set for 600 euros online a few days ago. The dealer's site seemed reputable, as far as he could tell from appearances. He provided his bank details for the direct debit authorization, his address and his telephone number. The only unusual thing was that after ordering the phone rang.
Someone from the savings bank was on the line and asked to authorize the transfer. Strange. But the nice gentleman from the Sparkasse said he would send a request via the Sparkasse's official banking app. And sure enough: at the same moment, a message from the bank app appeared on the man's cell phone asking for authentication. Would anyone this happened to have suspected? In the middle of the Christmas rush?
The internet retailer just wanted to get hold of the man's bank details. He then called, pretended to be a bank and tried to log into the account at the same time. That's why a request popped up in the bank app to authorize access. “During a peak season like Christmas, customers are less alert and in a hurry. This makes them much more vulnerable to online fraud,” says Vonny Gamot from security firm McAfee.
“I feel like it’s just peaking.”
The fraud victim reported to the Lower Saxony consumer advice center and told his story. You hear things like that more often there. “I have the feeling that it’s just reaching its peak,” says Kathrin Bartsch, who collects all the cases. People are under pressure, find a gift idea through obscure videos, click more and more and examine the dealers not on a nice, big computer screen, but on their cell phones. “Nobody scrolls down on their smartphone, looks at the imprint, the general terms and conditions or the cancellation policy,” says Bartsch. Many people only notice the fraud when the order never arrives, the supposed store from Wolfsburg turns out to be a scam in Hong Kong or bank details are stolen. Bartsch therefore runs the “Fake Shop Finder”. Everyone can check there whether a dealer is reputable.
The number of people cheated seems to be very high. According to a survey of German consumers by security company Norton, one in ten people have fallen victim to fraud while shopping for Christmas. On average, the people it hit lost 1,000 euros. “We see an increase at Christmas,” confirms Luis Corrons of Gen Digital, Norton’s parent company.
Anyone who orders online receives many emails with order confirmations and delivery instructions. A common scam is to report that a package has been held up by customs. The recipient has to pay a fee. Of course, in reality there is no package and no such emails from customs. But some may really be expecting an important gift from overseas and be momentarily blinded by the horror of it getting stuck. It costs nothing for the perpetrators to send the same email to tens of thousands. Only one person has to fall for it and the effort will be worth it.
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