The Christmas Shopping Scams I See Every December in Liverpool
Every December I watch the same pattern play out. People who are perfectly careful online for eleven months of the year suddenly relax their guard in the run up to Christmas, and the scammers know it better than anyone. They know you're tired, you're rushing, you've got a dozen people to buy for and only three weeks to do it in, and a "50% off, ends tonight" pop-up looks a lot more tempting when you're stood in the queue at Tesco trying to remember if your nephew already has that Lego set.
I'm not writing this to make you paranoid about your Christmas shopping. I'm writing it because a few small habits make the difference between a stress-free December and one spent on the phone to your bank on Boxing Day. I've covered the broader range of shopping scams I see year-round separately, this one's specifically about the ways December trips people up.
The Deals That Are Too Good to Be True
If you see a big-name gadget or the trainers everyone wants this year going for a third of the normal price on a website you've never heard of, that's not luck, that's bait. Genuine retailers rarely discount their most in-demand stock that heavily, especially close to Christmas when demand is at its peak.
Before you buy from any site you don't already know, check the web address carefully, look for reviews outside the site itself since its own five-star reviews prove nothing, and search the company name alongside the word scam before you hand over your card details. Thirty seconds of checking has saved more than one of my clients a very unhappy Christmas morning.
Watch Out for Copycat Websites
Scammers build near-perfect copies of well-known shops, right down to the logo and the layout, and buy a web address that's one letter off the real thing. You place your order, get a confirmation email that looks legitimate, and then nothing arrives, because there was never any stock to send in the first place.
The safest habit is to type the retailer's address in yourself rather than clicking through from an ad or a social media post. Citizens Advice has a good guide on spotting a fake online shop if you want a second opinion before you buy.
Gift Cards Are the Scammer's Favourite Trick
If anyone, and I mean anyone, ever asks you to pay for something in gift cards, whether it's a shop, a delivery fee, a family member in trouble over text, or a prize you've supposedly won, stop immediately. No legitimate company or organisation asks to be paid in Amazon or iTunes vouchers. It's one of the clearest scam signals there is, and it works because gift card payments are almost impossible to trace or reverse once they're spent.
Keep Your Payments Safe While You're Out and About
Christmas market stalls, the last-minute dash round Liverpool ONE, using the free wifi in a café while you finish an order on your lunch break, all of it adds up to more of your card details and browsing being exposed to networks you don't control than at any other time of year. A VPN encrypts your connection wherever you're shopping from, which matters more in December than any other month. I use NordVPN myself when I'm out shopping and recommend it to clients doing the same.
It's also worth using a password manager for any new shopping accounts you set up this time of year rather than reusing an old password, since a breach at one retailer can otherwise open the door to everything else you own. I use NordPass and it takes the thinking out of it completely.
My Own December Shopping Routine
I keep it simple. I shop from retailers I already know and trust wherever I can. I pay by card rather than bank transfer so I've got some protection if something goes wrong. I don't click links in unexpected delivery texts, not even the convincing ones, because that's a scam I've written about separately and it catches more people than almost anything else this time of year. And I check my bank statement more often in December than any other month, simply because there's more going through it.
If Something Does Go Wrong
If you've handed over card details to a fake site or paid for something that never arrived, contact your bank immediately. They can often stop or reverse a payment if you're quick. Report it to Action Fraud too, so what happened to you doesn't happen to the next person.
If you'd like a hand getting your accounts properly locked down before the Christmas rush starts, have a look at my Safety Toolkit, or get in touch and I'll talk you through it.