Fraudsters target unwary at Christmas

At Christmas, more parcels land on doorsteps and in letterboxes than at any other time of the year.

And it’s providing cover for the cyber-thieves behind the pernicious ‘‘mail box’’ scam.

The mail box scam was a form of phishing, said Bronwyn Groot, the manager for fraud education at the Commission for Financial Capability.

The crooks make contact by sending people emails that look like they are from a legitimate courier business, telling recipients a parcel is waiting or has been delayed.

The cunning calculation behind the scam is that a large proportion of people who get the email will be expecting a parcel, and others will just assume someone has sent them a gift.

That lulls recipients into a false sense of security, and makes Bronwyn Groot them more likely to follow the simple, but very dangerous instructions the crooks have included in the email.

‘‘All you have to do is click on the link, which will, of course, take you somewhere nasty, or your computer will have some nasty malware put on it,’’ Groot said.

The gift card scam is also more common in the run-up to Christmas.

Emails will appear to be from a well-known retailer such as Farmers, and will claim the recipient has been entered into a draw to win a gift card.

Once again, this was to get recipients to click on a link in the email.

‘‘The best thing you can do for these ones is go direct to the company’s website, and see whether they have that promotion loaded. Don’t automatically assume that because ‘you’ve won a gift’ that it’s legitimate,’’ Groot said. ‘‘Instead of thinking about what you can win, think about what you can lose.’’

Farmers said the company was ‘ misrepresented via a growing number of scam emails, Facebook pages, and websites targeting individuals with opportunities to win or receive Farmers gift cards or vouchers.