Technologies

Attention Last-Minute Holiday Shoppers: Scammers Are Coming for You

Experts say procrastinators need to be wary of last-minute Christmas-shopping deals.

Better ho, ho hold up before jumping on that seemingly great deal on that must-have holiday gift. Scammers are looking to take advantage of procrastinators still trying to finish their Christmas shopping.

With Christmas just days away, experts say last-minute shoppers need to be especially wary of deals that look too good to be true, because they most likely are. Cybercriminal attempts to steal the money and personal information of consumers have spiked in recent weeks and aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

What’s more, as gift giving draws closer, increasingly desperate shoppers will be more apt to click on links they shouldn’t and shop at sites that they otherwise might think are a little questionable.

Shoppers need to be aware that they’re being targeted with an epic amount of phishing and other kinds of online scams right now, said Kurt Baumgartner, a principal security researcher for the cybersecurity company Kaspersky.

«For the crooks that are behind this stuff, It’s a numbers game and they’re willing to put a lot more behind these efforts,» Baumgartner said.

The volume of Christmas-themed spam has increased consistently since Nov. 27, with big spikes in the emails spotted between Dec. 6 and Dec 9, according to researchers at the cybersecurity company Bitdefender.

The emails covered the usual holiday topics, including product giveaways, fake surveys and discounts on designer goods, along with non-shopping related offers geared toward the lonely including online-dating pitches and access to premium adult content.

Scammers impersonated brands such as Dollar General, Netflix and Lowes, hoping to entice consumers to hand over their personal or financial information in exchange for bogus gift cards, Bitdefender said.

In addition to seemingly never-ending streams of phishing emails, scammers are also reaching consumers through text messages, a practice known as «smishing,» as well as ads posted on social media. Those kinds of attacks have a better chance of getting past typical consumer antivirus software, which screens emails for phishing and spam.

The attacks themselves aren’t a new invention. Phishing in all of its forms is a year-round plague. What’s different during the holidays is that people are in a rush and less apt to think before they click, Baumgartner said.

About 12% of Americans polled for a Kaspersky study done before the start of the holiday season said they planned to do the bulk of their shopping during the last nine days before Christmas.

Of those expected last-minute shoppers, 40% admitted they’d be willing to shop on a site that struck them as sketchy, if the offer was enticing enough.

Baumgartner said that given the potential risks, those numbers are «alarming.» That said, there are some easy ways for last-minute shoppers to protect themselves.

Here are some tips from Baumgartner and others for warding off the cyber Crampus as you finish your holiday shopping.

Tips for safe last-minute online shopping

If a deal looks too good to be true … Yep, it probably is. Stop and think. Ask yourself if the deal you’re considering would look realistic in January, after the Christmas rush has passed.

Use good AV and a password manager. Security software will screen out a lot of unsolicited email and help protect you from known malware if you accidentally download it. A password manager won’t autofill your critical usernames and passwords if it thinks you’re on a site that they’re not intended for.

Always use a credit rather than debit card. If you get scammed, credit card companies are usually great about making you whole,ASAP. And it’s a lot less traumatizing to deal with that rather than an empty bank account.

Don’t buy gift cards online. When it gets down to crunch time, gift cards are better than nothing, but resist the temptation to buy one online from a third-party site. Instead, head to a brick and mortar retailer like a drug store. When you pick out your card, make sure it hasn’t been tampered with.

Technologies

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 20, #443

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 443 for May 20.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle reminds me that I haven’t had a meal in a fancy restaurant in some time. Maybe it’s time to make a reservation. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Oh, of course!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Elegant eats.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

SITE, FINE, SINE, DINE, PEAS, TEEN, PEER, STEEP, DEER, SEED, SEEN, POET, TREE, NOPE, SEES.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

SOUP, SALAD, CHEESE, ENTREE, DESSERT, APPETIZERS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FINEDINING. To find it, start with the F that’s three letters down on the farthest row to the left, and wind across.

Toughest Strands puzzles

Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.

#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.

#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 24, #713

Hints and answers for Connections for May 24, #713.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle has a fun variety of categories. The purple one appeals to my English major heart. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Goo-goo.

Green group hint: Not shirts.

Blue group hint: City that never sleeps.

Purple group hint: Acclaimed writers.