St. Patrick’s Day Phishing Scams: Greeting Card Scams and Phishing Emails to Watch Out For

While St. Patrick’s Day is about the luck of the Irish, there are people who haven’t been so lucky this holiday season. Scammers will do anything to scam their victims and will use holidays as an excuse to scam people out of money. St. Patrick’s Day is no exception since this allows scammers to create fake greeting cards and phishing emails as a means to commit identity fraud and drain victims’ bank accounts. Therefore, it is important to know how to avoid St. Patrick’s Day phishing scams.

Types of St. Patrick’s Day Phishing Scams

Phishing Emails and Messages

Scammers send phishing emails and text messages and come up with an excuse related to St. Patrick’s Day as to why you need to click on the link. The scammer might trick you by stating that there’s a St. Patrick’s Day sale or that there’s a St. Patrick’s Day virus you need to get rid of.

However, once you click on the link to partake in a sale or to remove this virus, malware gets downloaded onto your device without even knowing it. Then, the fake website has a fake form to fill out your personal and financial information, thinking that you’re buying something. Scammers take that information and steal your money and commit identity theft.

Fake Greeting Cards

Scammers send phishing emails containing fake greeting cards and links that supposedly lead to them. However, once you click on these fake links, it takes you to a phishing website with a fake form. Along with this, malware gets downloaded onto your device.

The form is to “verify that it’s you opening the card” by asking you your personal information. However, once scammers get your information they commit identity theft with it instead.

Fake Irish Websites

You go and search up festive wallpaper and screensavers for your computer during the holidays and click on a website that claims they have what you want. You also want to shop online and find a website that sells festive Irish merch.

You try and download the wallpaper or screensaver or buy the item you want, but it won’t let you unless you can verify that you’re a real person. It asks you to fill out a form with your information to make a payment for the wallpaper, screensaver, or item you want. However, once you enter that information, scammers use it to steal your money and commit identity fraud.

How to Avoid St. Patrick’s Day Phishing Scams

• Don’t give a website or anyone you met online your personal and financial information.
• Don’t click on any links via email if you aren’t sure if the email is safe.
• Always verify that the email came from a trusted sender even if it looks like an email you can trust.
• Only shop online at trusted stores that you are familiar with or stores that have good reviews through trusted review sites.
• Don’t download anything on a website that you are unfamiliar with.
• Only open up greeting cards from people you know after verifying that they really sent it through texting or calling them.

Social Catfish is Here to Help You!

At Social Catfish, we want to help you verify the identities of those who might seem suspicious to you. If you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image, you can reverse search and see who the suspected person was that you’ve been in contact with when dealing with St. Patrick’s Day phishing scams.