The Postal Service is reminding employees and contractors that online shopping scams are a widespread threat during the holiday season.
Follow these tips to avoid being scammed:
• Choose secure, trusted websites. When buying gifts or donating to a charity, make sure the URL begins with “https://” and look for a closed padlock icon in the address bar. Misspellings, grammatical errors or numeric addresses in the website domain could indicate the site is fraudulent.
• Use a secure payment method. Credit cards protect against theft more than debit cards. Monitor your account statements for unauthorized charges.
• Ignore popup ads. Deals seemingly too good to be true can lead to fraudulent sites that steal your personal information.
• Slow down. Be suspicious of urgent messages and requests to act quickly.
• Beware of suspicious links. Do not click on links from unsolicited emails or text messages.
• Report scams. If you’ve been scammed, contact the FBI’s online Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The CyberSafe at USPS Blue and LiteBlue pages have more information.
