Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 21 December 2023

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

Holiday Notice

Some members of the team will be taking time to enjoy the Christmas and New Year holidays, and as such, our reporting will not follow the usual pattern after today. There will be no DAPs published until 2 January 2024. As always, the team will continue to monitor the threat landscape and will issue alerts / bulletins if necessary.

Beware of Holiday Scams

Keep your money safe from gift card scammers this holiday season. Here’s how

The Federal Trade Commission advises:

Gift card scams start with a call, text, email, or social media message. It’s usually for something urgent and they want you to pay right away. Scammers might say they’re from the government or a company you know. Or, thanks to AI voice cloning, they might even sound just like the friend or family member they call pretending to be, asking you to send money to fix their emergency. No matter what they say, it’s a trick to get you to go to a store, put money on a gift card, and give them the numbers. It’s a scam.

If you think you gave a gift card to a scammer, act fast. Grab your gift card and gift card receipt, then:

• Report the gift card scam to the gift card company. It doesn’t matter how long ago the scam happened. Use this How To Contact Gift Card Companieslist to report it.
• Ask for your money back. Some companies are helping stop gift card scams. They might give your money back. It’s worth asking.
• Tell the FTC at ftc.gov. Your report makes a difference and helps protect people in your community from fraud and scams.

Learn more at ftc.gov/giftcards.

Additional holiday scam items from earlier DAPS:

• Protection Highlight: Season’s Greedings – Beware of gift card and rewards program scams
• Keep scammers away as you deal with East Coast storm damage
• If DNA test kits are on your holiday shopping list
• Can you trust a “blueprint to wealth”?
• Last-minute shopping? Three ways to spot rip-offs
• Fake shipping notification emails and text messages: What you need to know this holiday season

Analyst Comments:

Faith-Based Organizations and individuals need to be extra alert during the holiday season.

On 13 December, the FBI published FBI Warns the Public of Holiday Scam Trends.

The article explained multiple types  of scams and provided the following tips to avoid being victimized online.

• Before shopping online, secure all financial accounts with strong passwords. Use different passwords for each financial account.
• Don’t click suspicious links or attachments in e-mails, websites, or social media. Especially those asking for a password or financial data. This also may result in unknowingly downloading malware to your device.
• If a company asks you to update your password or account information, contact the company on your own using information from their official website.
• Be wary of online retailers offering goods at significantly discounted prices. If a deal seems too good to be true, it likely is.
• Beware of purchases or services that require payment with a gift card.
• Use a credit card vs. a debit card to make purchases and check credit card statements routinely.
• Make charitable contributions directly rather than through an intermediary and beware of organizations with copycat names similar to reputable charities.
• Always get tracking numbers for items you buy online, so you can make sure you can follow the delivery process. Track your order through your original confirmation e-mail.

Also, the Where to report scams | USAGov website will direct victims to the proper federal agency to report specific types of scams.

The categories of scams are:

• Banking
• Housing
• Identity theft
• Imposter (someone claiming to be someone they’re not)
• Romance (catfishing)
• Other