The Hot Sale 2024 will take place from May 15 to 23, in a season of online sales on products and services. A few days before the start of the offers, Kaspersky experts warned about a scam that threatens Mexican users, as well as recommendations to avoid falling for it.
The cybersecurity company estimates that 58% of users in Mexico shop online through sites such as Amazon, EBay or Mercado Libre. The Hot Sale is a recurrent time for scams in this dynamic of consumption.
Hot Sale 2024 scam warning!
Experts identified a scam that begins with a fake message from the purported parcel carrier alerting buyers that their shipment cannot be delivered until they click on a link to steal their information.
These messages arrive mainly by SMS or email, arguing lack of information, incorrect address, absence of the recipient in the delivery address, among others. Cybercriminals can send these messages to anyone, to see if they fall into the trap, even if they have not made a purchase.
However, their success is likely to increase because of Hot Sale 2024, as the alert about the delivery error may not arouse any suspicion in shoppers who are tracking their shipments. The criminals are confident that users will do as the message asks immediately for fear of not receiving their purchases or having to pay any additional costs for “reshipping their items,” according to experts.
Recommendations to avoid falling for this scam during Hot Sale 2024
To avoid falling into the Hot Sale 2024 scam, Isabel Manjarrez recommends users not to be carried away by the fear of losing their purchases and always verify their shipment in the official communication channels of the store or delivery service.
Likewise, Kaspersky offers the following recommendations to Mexican shoppers to avoid falling victim to fake messages this digital shopping season:
- If you made a purchase and received a suspicious notification about a delivery problem, check with the store through their official channels.
- Dial the official phone numbers of the courier service or log in to your account on their platform to check if there is indeed a problem.
- If you receive a message from an unknown phone number, check that it is not verified as a business number or has a different dialing from your city or country.
- If you receive emails from a free service, such as Gmail or Hotmail, or if it contains nonsense characters, it is most likely a scam attempt.
- Pay attention to the quality of the text and grammar. ‘If the language is perfect, it's not necessarily a legitimate message or email, but if you see errors, you can be almost certain it's spam,“ says Kaspersky.".
- Be careful if you receive a message notifying you of a package delivery error and you have not made a purchase. Block the number and report it as spam from your device.
