Email scams are spiking this holiday season.
Right now, millions of orders are being processed for shipping, but the "Season of Giving" is turning into the season of stealing for criminals who are sending fake emails disguised as delivery notices from Amazon, FedEx and UPS.
If you click on the link in one of fake emails being sent, a pop up that looks like your real Amazon sign-in page will appear, but if you fill it out you’re giving cyber thieves access to your home address, financial information, and phone number.
That's everything a criminal needs to sell your identity on the black market for a quick buck.
The best thing to do is never click a link embedded in an email.
“Go to the actual shipping website, put in the tracking number, and see what it really is,” said Caleb Barlow with IBM Security.
You should also look closely at that url of the website you're visiting.
It should read "https."
The ‘s’ is important because it means the page is a secure site.
Another good idea is to use a separate email address for all online shopping to protect your personal and work accounts from the scammers.
You know you’ve gotten one of these fake emails if the subject is "Your Amazon.com order cannot be shipped,” and if the sender’s email address doesn’t end in @amazon.com.
If you think there’s a problem, log into your Amazon account and go to "My orders" to see the status of your purchase.
