Posted
on Monday, November 10, 2025
in
Financial Education
Don't Let Scammers Steal Your Joy This Season
This week is International Fraud Awareness Week, and we are urging consumers to use extra caution online this holiday season. Scammers take advantage of unique opportunities during the holiday season to defraud consumers. These involve phishing emails, charity scams, delivery scams and travel scams. The busyness of the season makes scams easier to miss, and in 2024, nearly 60% of the U.S. population made a purchase during Cyber Week (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday).
During the season of giving, make sure scammers don’t steal your sensitive information and money by learning about these common types of scams during the holiday season:
- Phishing scams – Online shopping makes it easy to complete the gifting checklist, but also presents more opportunities for fake deals, counterfeit websites, and prices that are a “little too-good-to-be-true.” Be wary of clicking on links from social media ads or buying from websites without “https” in the URL.
- Charity scams – Fraudsters want to capitalize on people’s generosity during the holiday season by creating fake charities and organizations. Counterfeit charities may play on people’s emotions, pressure them to donate, ask for forms of payment like crypto or gift cards, and are vague about where exactly the money is going.
- Delivery scams – Online shopping means the anticipation of package deliveries and receiving delivery status updates. Scammers may send phony emails with fake delivery updates, pretending to be FedEx, Amazon and UPS and attempt to get you to share personal information. Keep in mind – these companies won’t send unsolicited messages asking for personal or payment information.
- Travel scams – Fake travel agencies may advertise discounts on airfare, luring people who travel during the holiday season. These scams are especially malicious because of sensitive information needed for legitimate travel like your address and credit or debit information. Double check URLs and be wary if your login information isn’t working on travel websites.
Learn More
For more information on protecting yourself against scammers during the holiday season, visit our Information Center.
These tips are provided by the Iowa Bankers Association
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