As we begin our descent into the holiday season there will be many holiday season related scams which we will be discussing over the next few weeks.  One that has been very prevalent of late is that of online greeting cards.  They are easy to send.  Many are free.  Many are very entertaining and they offer a chance to send a timely greeting even if you have forgotten an important holiday, birthday or anniversary until the last minute.  However, they also are fraught with scams and dangers.  Clicking on a phony online greeting card sent to you can result in your downloading a keystroke logging program that will steal all of the information from your computer and make you a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

When a legitimate card is sent to you, the email message will state the name of the person who is sending you the card.  When the message states that it is from “a friend” or a “secret admirer” you should not click on the link because if you do so, you will download a dangerous keystroke logging program.  As an additional precaution you should also make sure that your Firewall and security software are constantly kept current and up to date.  Finally, if you get an online greeting card from a name that is a common name, you should contact that person before opening the card to make sure that the card is legitimate.