Christmas mail: be careful with electronic greeting cards

Just in time for the start of the Advent season, the season for Christmas mail also begins. In addition to the classic analog Christmas greetings, virtual greeting cards are also becoming increasingly popular. No wonder: they are practical, cost no postage and can be sent with just a few clicks. However, the European security manufacturer ESET warns against too careless handling, because cybercriminals have also discovered electronic postcards for themselves.

Sender unknown

In the flood of digital Christmas greetings, spam and phishing emails are unfortunately hiding more and more frequently, trying to lure their victims with harmful attachments or links. Once clicked, the PC is quickly infected with malware. "If you don't know the sender of a greeting card, you should definitely not open any attachments or links and delete the email without hesitation," recommends Thomas Uhlemann, Security Specialist at ESET. In case of doubt, this is a fraud attempt, as is known all year round in the form of fake invoices from online retailers or service providers. Even if the greeting card contains spelling mistakes or an anonymous salutation such as "Dear friend" or "Dear customer", caution is advised. If in doubt, it is always worth taking a closer look at the sender's e-mail address or the address of the linked website.

However, infiltrated Christmas greetings can also come from known senders. With an up-to-date antivirus solution, however, unwanted damage from e-mails can usually be prevented. "Regular updates are important so that the virus protection can work reliably and protect the user from such threats," adds Uhlemann.

Rely on well-known providers

If you want to send e-cards yourself, you should definitely rely on reputable providers. Many large e-mail providers offer their users this service free of charge. Otherwise, you can quickly end up on the list of an address collector who uses virtual greeting cards to quickly and easily obtain e-mail addresses that he can sell for profit.

If you have fallen for dubious providers and entered additional personal data or even passwords in addition to your e-mail address, you are quickly threatened with countless advertising e-mails and data misuse instead of a quiet Christmas holiday. In this case, quick action is called for: change passwords and be more careful with new emails. After all, malicious file attachments or links may be lurking in them as well.

Simple precautions for safe Christmas mail

Only the classic, analog Christmas greeting offers one hundred percent security. But with these simple precautions, you can minimize the risk of an unwanted holiday surprise:

• only use e-cards from reputable, well-known providers
• do not open emails from unknown senders
• Be careful even with known senders and, if in doubt, check the sender's address and links more closely.
• Do not open file attachments
• use an up-to-date antivirus solution.

Source: ESET