This holiday season will result in an all time high for holiday scams.  As the shopping season kicks into high gear and shoppers flock to Black Friday sales more people will be flocking to the sales online.  This year should break records for online shopping and online transactions will increase as well and with that comes holiday scams, be careful who you buy from and use precaution when shopping online or in retail stores.  Here are a couple of tips that could help prevent you from being scammed.

1. When shopping at public retail stores carry some cash and try not to use your credit card for every little small purchase, this reduces the frequency that you supply your information.

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Here is another Nigerian type email scam with the subject line “My Project”, guess where its from, not Nigeria but…

Dear Friend,

I am a staff of Chong Hing Bank,Hong Kong attached in Private Banking services; I am contacting you in reference to an investment opportunity which I believe would be of significant reward to the parties involved. It´s about a customer that came to Chong Hing Bank,Hong Kong to engage in Private Banking services. The customer had a financial portfolio of $15,500,000.00 and this I help turned over in the purchase of securities in the capital markets. I was the bank adviser assisting the customer in the management of the fund. Given the instruction to liquidate the funds after 4 years for some Investment requiring cash payments in Europe. Subsequently,i made effort to contact the customer for some final instructions after 4 years only to discover that the customer had passed away.

Since the original owner listed no next of kin in his bio-data form, my proposition is this; I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct my Bank to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit,we share the proceeds 50/50. If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through this email account: wahyonghon@yahoo.com.hk with your full names,residential address and phone number. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards conclusion.

Regards,
Mrs. Wan Yonghong.
Email:wahyonghon@yahoo.com.hk

which have had their details ’skimmed’ at car park pay machines, investigators say they have no doubt the theft is the work of Eastern European crime gangs. Westpac Bank and the Auckland City Council is looking into how the credit card details were