HSBC has warned customers to be vigilant for phishing frauds this in year in what festively it has called its ’12 scams of Christmas’.
“Scammers are devious criminals who use a wide range of techniques and scenarios… using the distractions of the Christmas period to try and steal your cash” said David Callington, head of fraud at HSBC UK.
Phishing is a form of scam that tricks victims into believing they’ve received a message from a trusted source, when in fact it’s an attacker attempting to obtain a target’s details.
Typically phishing appears as a text or email posing as a bank, delivery company or government organisation often issuing a warning with a link provided where victims can log in to enter details.
An example would involve a fake text from a scammer posing as a bank stating ‘new payment-log in to view your account here’ with a link to a fake version of the bank’s webpage, the second you log in the fraudsters can gain access to your bank account.
Other scams HSBC mentioned involve being tricked into purchasing non-existent products, like loan fee fraud which is up a fifth compared to last year.