The 4th of July is quickly approaching. While celebrations, gatherings and watching fireworks this year may not exactly resemble the ones of the past, for cyber criminals not much has changed. For them, it's just another holiday to scam you out of money or information or compromise your devices.
Top 4th of July Scams to Watch Out For
Patriotic Phishing Emails, Text Messages & Posts on Social Media
You may see active duty or veteran scams, political campaign scams, charitable donation scams, or other "USA" themed scams.
Recommendations: Don't open suspicious emails or click on links from people you don't know. It's ok to even question emails or messages received from friends.
Firework Scams
The use of fireworks has been in the news a lot lately. If your state allows you to purchase fireworks for consumer use, be cautious where you buy them. Those "pop-up" firework tents and stands can present an opportunity for cyber criminals to steal your payment details.
Recommendations: Pay for your fireworks in cash.
Holiday Sales & Malvertising
Retail stores take advantage of the holiday to offer discounts and deals to consumers. Cyber criminals will follow suit to send you bogus emails, text messages, present malicious ads on websites and even go to such lengths as creating fraudulent retail websites with fake coupons and sale promotions in hopes you click and/or buy. There is even speculation that we'll see a rise in malvertising (aka malicious website ads) this weekend due to the 4th falling on a Saturday and the lower costs to purchase ads.
Recommendations: You know what they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is...but you can always ask us to double-check for you. If you decide to do some spending this weekend, buy through retailers and merchants you've purchased through in the past, go to their website directly and not through URL links and make sure to use a secure payment method for your purchases.
As always, the BLACKCLOAK Team is here to help. If you have any questions, email us at ask@blackcloak.io.
Thanks!
The BLACKCLOAK Team
BlackCloak Client Statistics
See where you fall within the BlackCloak Family
84%
Exposed Passwords
customers with passwords exposed on the Deep/Dark Web
38%
Compromised
customers with hacked computers, cameras, or phones
100%
Privacy Leaks
customer devices configured to overshare location and private data
We're actively monitoring your devices to ensure you're protected.
BlackCloak customers have over 1 petabyte of storage across all of their devices. A petabyte is 1,000 terabytes, and a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. That's a lot of storage!
If you get a new device, email us so we can protect it.
