Three suspicious holiday emails to avoid

Now that the holiday season is here, it’s time to be on the lookout for scammers trying to “phish” for your holiday cash.

They use emails sitting in your in-box as bait.

Shopper Hilary Speer has felt the pressure to donate to charities when the holidays come around.

“It’s the season of giving,” she said. Now, she guards against suspicious emails she gets this time of year.

“They use that to their advantage,” she said.

Rick Brinkley with the Better Business Bureau agrees. “Scam artists live for the holiday season,” he said. “There are so many emails that will make sense to you, that otherwise would not.”

He says you should think twice about emails that ask you to donate to a charity. Not only could you lose money if the charity’s a fake, but legitimate charities do too, he said.

“Which means the disease research isn’t being done, the poor aren’t being fed,” he said, “because scam artists are lining their pockets with people’s good intentions.”

To check out a charity, go to Give.org or check their tax filings on Guidestar.org .

Another email to watch out for are electronic greeting cards wishing you happy holidays from people you don’t know.

They can infect your computer with a virus, steal your information, your credit, or your money, Brinkley said.

“I tend to delete them without opening them,” he said.

And, if you get a delivery notification in your inbox from FedEx, UPS or the US Postal Service, “verify it before you do anything, like clicking on a link inside the email,” Brinkley said.

Are you getting suspicious emails this holiday season? Email me or go to my ABC15 Facebook page and tell me about it.