As Australians prepare to hand out the dollars for Christmas and New Year, scammers are ramping up their operations, ready to take advantage of holiday shoppers.

Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday 2024 sales are expected to bring in more money than ever, with reports suggesting Australians will spend 5.5% more than last year, or $6.7 billion.

Additionally, much of this shopping is happening online, with four in five Australians using online marketplaces and stores in 2023.

“As we head into peak shopping season, fraudsters are ramping up their tactics, preying on consumers looking for deals,” said Microsoft ANZ national security manager Mark Anderson.

However, with these added conveniences come additional risks, especially as AI and other tools lower the barrier of entry for cybercriminals. In 2024, scams have been reported 143,000 times.

“As buyers become more aware of common scams, these tactics are evolving. New technologies like AI are making it easier for fraudsters to operate and make it more difficult to detect these schemes,” Anderson said.

Microsoft said there are some key advanced scams that buyers should be aware of.

Deepfakes

AI-powered tools mean creating deepfakes can be as simple as uploading an image. With technology evolving so quickly, a scammer could easily create a deepfake of a celebrity, public figure, or loved one to create a convincing scam.

Deepfakes can appear in the form of a photo, audio, or video, all of which could be used to trick a victim into handing over personal or financial data, or to trick them into making unauthorized payments. authorized.

Buyers should remain vigilant and look for signs that a call or video may be fake, such as distortion or any unnatural appearance. If the person involved in the deepfake is known, contact them directly.

QR code phishing

Fraudsters can hide malicious QR codes in seemingly legitimate content, such as flyers and signs, to lure victims. These scams may offer discounts to convince victims to scan them and then force them to provide personal information or identifying information.

To avoid being stung, shoppers should avoid QR codes they consider suspicious or containing offers that are too good to be true, and verify any requests for personal information or identifiers.

Tech scams

Although tech scams have been around for a long time, scammers are using increasingly advanced tools to make them more convincing.

Technology scams are scams in which scammers use fear to convince victims to hand over data or financial information in order to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

Tech scams often appear in the form of scammers posing as tech support employees from Microsoft and other companies, suggesting that there is a problem with a victim’s account or device, even suggesting potentially that she is infected with a virus or that a scammer is after her, and that they are here to help you.

These scams may also take the form of calls or other communications impersonating major retailers, directing victims to fake sites promising incredible discounts or deals.

According to Microsoft, technology scams “can impact wallets up to 10 times greater than traditional phishing attempts.”

How to avoid scams

There are several ways shoppers can stay vigilant against scammers this holiday season.

Avoiding links or attachments in untrustworthy emails or texts is a good start. These scammers know that buyers are looking to get the most for their money and want the best deals on the market, and these links may claim to lead to these deals. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Using multi-factor authentication and strong, unique passphrases is arguably the most important way to keep fraudsters and bad actors at bay.

Hard-to-guess passwords make it harder for fraudsters to gain access, and making them unique prevents credential stuffing attacks. Additionally, if a fraudster obtains a victim’s credentials, multi-factor authentication should prevent them from accessing the account without your authorization.

Finally, if you receive a suspicious message from a friend or family member, verify that it is really them. Fraudsters will pretend to be your loved ones to try to steal your data and money.