Seasonal Scams: Stay Safe and Secure This Christmas

For many, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, but during the holiday season it’s important to be extra vigilant due to a massive increase in scams. During this time of year, criminals are most active, taking advantage of the festive spirit, our increased online activity and our busy social calendars.

Two scams that increase at this time of year are phone theft and phishing around Christmas offers and deliveries. Whether you’re out with friends and being less careful with your phone, shopping around the web for the best deal on your gifts or simply enjoying the holiday cheer, it’s crucial to stay aware and protect yourself from potential threats.

To help you stay safe, we’ve compiled a small hub of our existing blogs that cover phone theft, phishing and some other aspects of online security that are especially important at this time of year. These articles provide valuable tips and insights on how to protect your devices and your data this Christmas.

Check out the articles below – we’ve added a quick synopsis of each to help you find what you’re looking for if you’re concerned about something specific! Just click on each subheading to go to the relevant blog.

Phone Theft

In 2022, in London alone, almost 250 phones were stolen every day – that’s one phone every six minutes. And that’s only the ones that were reported! Of the 91,000 reported stolen, unfortunately only 2% were ever recovered, so it’s extra important to stay vigilant.

Whilst the loss of the phone itself is infuriating, the loss of that which is on your phone can be devastating. Nowadays, you carry your whole life in your pocket. You have things on your phone like passwords, information related to your identity, your memories stored in photos and videos and even your financial data via your mobile banking.

One such case is that of Niall McNamee. The BBC reported that Niall was using his phone on the tube when someone on the platform snatched it from him right before the doors closed. Two days later, his bank had been drained of £21,000, including a £7,000 loan taken out in his name.

The British Transport Police reported that theft and robberies on trains and at stations shot up 58% from 2018 to 2023, with December having the highest number of thefts and robbery reports. They have identified three main tactics that thieves use that you should be aware of:

• The Plucker: the thief selects a victim who has fallen asleep in their seat and steals their phone without waking them
• The Grabber: the thief watches as the victim is distracted and puts their phone on a seat or table, then walks by and steals it
• The Snatcher: the thief stands by the exit, waiting until the train is about to depart and snatches the phone from the victim's hands and runs as the doors close.
  

Source: BBC. Read the full article here.

The following tips and articles will help you to secure your phone and its data if it’s ever lost or stolen.

How to Turn On and Use Stolen Device Protection on Your iPhone

Learn how to activate and make use of the Stolen Device Protection feature on your iPhone. This Byte-size Bulletin tip provides step-by-step instructions to ensure your device is protected and can be recovered if it’s lost or stolen. The tip explains the benefits of this feature, such as requiring biometric confirmations for sensitive operations and how it can improve your peace of mind.

10 Top Tips to Protect Your iPhone Before It’s Stolen

In this article, we share essential tips to safeguard your iPhone in the event of theft. From using an alphanumeric passcode to setting up a recovery key, these tips will help you secure your device and protect your business, personal and financial information.

We recommend you follow the Stolen Device Protection guide before implementing the steps in this article. Whilst the steps in this article are still good practice, Apple’s Stolen Device Protection made it a lot easier to setup the basic protections for your iPhone.

Protect Your Phone and Ensure Peace of Mind with Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Discover how MDM can help you manage and secure your company’s mobile devices. This blog explains the benefits, such as providing a list of devices you own, setting mandatory passcodes, separating personal and work data and the ability to erase a device remotely – a real saviour if you misplace your phone at your Christmas do! MDM can help mitigate business risks by enforcing security policies and providing centralised management of your devices.

Phishing and More

Our Security Services Engineer Emre has highlighted several reports and tech news articles to colleagues recently which talk about the massive rise in sophisticated phishing scams. These articles touched on an increase in phishing scams, fraudulent offers at Christmas and a general rise in phishing scams overall. Cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated by the day, and in turn phishing attempts are becoming harder and harder to identify.

Our Senior Systems Engineer Paul Matthews also recently provided some Cyber Security Awareness Training for clients and specifically highlighted an increase in seasonal scams, so it’s definitely something to be vigilant about. The following articles cover phishing in more detail, including our specialist Cyber Security Awareness Training service, email security to stop phishing attacks and malware reaching your inbox and some top tips to improve your data privacy across the board.

Be Smarter Than a Hacker with Cyber Security Awareness Training

Security awareness training is essential for your staff to stay ahead of cyber threats. This blog provides insights into how you can become more aware of potential threats and protect yourself from cyber criminals. It covers various aspects of cyber security, including recognising phishing attempts, which are especially prevalent at this time of year, and the benefits of regular training to keep your skills up to date.

Top Tips to Improve Your Data Privacy

This article offers practical tips to improve your data privacy, from setting up strong passwords to enabling Multi-Factor Authentication. These tips will help you protect your personal information and keep your data secure – you should follow these practices year round!

Must-Have Multi-Layered Email Security – Will You Be Proactive or Reactive?

Last but not least, email security. Email security is crucial in preventing phishing attacks and other cyber threats. This article discusses the importance of layers when it comes to email security and offers tips on how to implement these layers effectively to protect your inbox. These layers include protections like spam filters, anti-virus solutions, and user training to recognise and report suspicious emails.

Stay safe and secure

Check out the advice in these blogs and let us know what you think! Are you worried about seasonal scams? Have these articles helped you to enjoy the holiday season with peace of mind? If you’re worried about any of your business protections, why not book some Cyber Security Awareness Training in the new year? Perhaps your email protections need some refreshing or you want to get all your mobile devices covered under MDM – whatever it is, we can help.

Please stay safe and happy holidays, from all of us at The Final Step!