Avoiding Scams Over Christmas (Emails, Ads & Online Shopping)

Every year, the Christmas period sees a significant spike in cyber crime targeting both individuals and businesses. According to Action Fraud, UK victims lose hundreds of millions of pounds to online fraud in the final quarter of each year, with scams becoming increasingly sophisticated and difficult to spot. For businesses, the festive period brings specific risks: reduced IT cover, staff distraction, temporary employees who haven't had security training, and a surge in online purchasing that creates the perfect cover for fraudulent activity.

The Christmas period is one of the busiest times of year, not just for retailers, but for cybercriminals too. With people shopping online, clicking delivery updates, and rushing to wrap up work before the holidays, attackers take advantage of distraction and increased digital activity.

For businesses, the risk is even higher. Remote working, temporary staff, and increased online spending all create opportunities for scams to slip through unnoticed. Understanding the most common Christmas scams is one of the best ways to protect your business and your team during this high-risk season.

Why Scams Increase at Christmas

Cybercriminals rely on urgency, emotion, and volume, all of which peak during the festive period. Businesses are particularly vulnerable due to staff working from home, reduced IT cover, unfamiliar seasonal employees, and an increase in online purchases and promotions.

Common Christmas Scams to Watch Out For

• Festive phishing emails are one of the most common threats. These messages often pretend to be from retailers, delivery companies, gift card providers, charities, or even HMRC offering a “tax refund”. They encourage recipients to click links, enter login details, or download infected attachments.

  Always check the sender’s email address carefully and be cautious of unexpected messages, even if they look convincing.

• Fake online shops and adverts also increase at Christmas. Social media and search engines are flooded with ads promoting heavily discounted tech, toys, or designer goods. Many of these sites are fraudulent and exist only to collect payment details.

  Only buy from reputable retailers and take a moment to check reviews before purchasing.

• Delivery scams are particularly effective when people are waiting for parcels. Fake texts or emails claiming a delivery problem often impersonate Royal Mail, DPD, or Evri, asking for a small payment to “release” a package.

  Never click links in unexpected delivery messages, check tracking details directly on official websites.

• Charity scams also peak in December. Fake charity websites exploit generosity during the festive season. Always donate through recognised and registered UK charities.

• Gift card scams are especially common in businesses. Attackers pose as managers requesting gift cards urgently as Christmas rewards. Staff should know that legitimate managers will never ask for gift cards by email.

• Fake Christmas apps and downloads, such as wallpapers or discount apps, may contain malware. Only download apps from official app stores.

How to Protect Your Business This Christmas

Simple steps can significantly reduce risk: train staff on seasonal scams, use email filtering, enable multi-factor authentication, keep antivirus and firewalls updated, and ensure backups and continuity plans are in place.

Christmas IT Security Checklist for Businesses

Before the Christmas break, run through this checklist with your team:

• Remind all staff of your phishing email policy and what to do if they receive a suspicious message

• Ensure multi-factor authentication is enabled on all company accounts, especially Microsoft 365 and email

• Check that all devices are fully patched and antivirus definitions are up to date

• Confirm that automated backups are running and that at least one recent backup has been verified

• Brief any temporary or seasonal staff on basic security protocols

• Review who has access to sensitive systems and remove any permissions that aren't needed over the holiday period

• Ensure someone is designated to monitor for security alerts during the Christmas period, even if the office is closed

• Test your disaster recovery process — Christmas is a common time for ransomware attacks precisely because IT cover is reduced

How CapNet Keeps Your Business Safe This Christmas

At CapNet, we help businesses stay protected throughout the festive season and year round. Our cyber security services include managed email filtering that catches phishing attempts before they reach your team, endpoint detection and response tools that monitor every device for suspicious activity, multi-factor authentication setup and management, and staff awareness training that can be delivered before the Christmas period to reduce seasonal risk.

We also provide 24/7 system monitoring and incident response, meaning that even if your office is closed over the holidays, your systems are being watched. If something goes wrong, we'll know about it and act on it — often before you're even aware there was a problem.

If you'd like to review your business's cyber security posture before Christmas, contact our team today for a free initial consultation.