In short
Fake parcel texts, gift card demands, charity appeals and sold-out gifts that never arrive. The Christmas scams to watch for, and how to check each one.
Top warning signs: A delivery text with a small fee and a deadline; Anyone asking to be paid in gift cards; A sold-out gift available from a stranger.
First thing to do: Track parcels only through the retailer's order email or the courier's official app, which you open yourself.
How the scam works
Christmas scams are mostly the everyday scams at their seasonal peak. With so many parcels on the way, a text about a missed delivery feels believable. With so many gifts to buy, a cheap deal on a sold-out toy is tempting. With appeals everywhere, a donation page doesn't look out of place.
The goal is almost always the same: get you to tap a link and enter card details, pay by a method that can't be reversed, or send gift card numbers. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre reported £11.8 million lost to online shopping fraud over the last festive season alone.
Red flags to look for
- A delivery text with a small fee and a deadline. Couriers charge the sender, not you. A real customs charge comes with a tracking number you can check on the courier's own site or app.
- Anyone asking to be paid in gift cards. The US Federal Trade Commission is clear: no real business or government agency will ever tell you to buy a gift card to pay them.
- A sold-out gift available from a stranger. Consoles, toys and trainers that are sold out everywhere, offered on social media for payment by bank transfer.
- An appeal that pulls at your heart and rushes you. Fake charities copy real appeals and ask you to give right now, by bank transfer, gift card or a link in a message.
- An e-card, invoice or order confirmation you don't recognise. "Your order has shipped" or "You've received a Christmas card" with a link or an attachment is a common way to deliver phishing.
- A family member on a new number, asking for help before Christmas. The "Hi Mum" scam spikes when people expect family to be busy, broke or travelling.
What to do if you get one
- Track parcels only through the retailer's order email or the courier's official app, which you open yourself.
- Paste any text, email or link you're unsure about into the TapSafely checker before you tap.
- Never pay for anything, or settle any bill, with gift card numbers. Give gift cards as gifts only, and keep the receipt.
- Give to charity through the charity's own website, typed in yourself, and check it on the official charity register in your country.
- If a family member messages from a new number, call their old number or ask a question only they would know.
- Pay for gifts with a credit card or a service with buyer protection, not bank transfer.
Gift cards: great presents, terrible payments
Gift cards are popular presents, so buying several in December raises no eyebrows at the till. That is exactly why scammers ask for them. The US Federal Trade Commission's advice is simple: anyone who tells you to pay with a gift card is a scammer. If you give gift cards, buy them from shops you trust, check the packaging hasn't been tampered with, and keep the receipt.
Warn the people who'd fall for it
The people most likely to be caught by a Christmas scam are often the ones least likely to read about it. Send them this week's scam of the week, agree a family safe word before everyone travels, and print the fridge poster for anyone who'd rather not look at a screen.
If you already paid or shared details
Act quickly. It makes a difference.
- If you entered card details on a link from a text or email, call your bank now using the number on your card and ask them to block the card.
- If you paid with gift cards, contact the company that issued them straight away and ask them to freeze the balance. Keep the cards and the receipt.
- If you paid a stranger by bank transfer, call your bank immediately. The sooner they know, the better the chance of stopping the payment.
- Report the message or website to the official fraud service in your country. Our what to do after a scam page lists them.
More help: what to do after a scam, and where to report it in your country.
How to protect yourself next time
Take your details off data broker sites
Scammers buy phone numbers, home addresses and family details from people-search and data broker sites. The less of that is public, the fewer and less convincing the scam messages you get.
Free: You can ask each site to delete your details yourself. In the EU and the UK, data protection law gives you that right.
- Incogni Partner link Sends removal requests to data brokers for you, and keeps sending them.
Watch for anyone using your identity
If you shared ID documents, card details or a Social Security number, monitoring can alert you when someone opens credit or accounts in your name.
Free: In the US, a credit freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion is free and blocks most new-credit fraud. Elsewhere, ask your bank and your credit reference agency about fraud alerts.
- Aura Partner link US identity theft protection with credit monitoring and fraud insurance.
Compare the tools that help, and what each costs
Links marked Partner link may earn us a commission, at no cost to you. It never changes our advice, and the free option always comes first. Affiliate disclosure.
Questions people ask
Why are there more scams at Christmas?
More parcels, more shopping and more giving means more believable stories. Scammers reuse the same tricks and time them for the season.
I got a text about a missed delivery. How do I know if it's real?
Don't use the link. Open the courier's official app or website yourself and enter the tracking number from your order email. If there's nothing there, the text is a scam.
Someone asked me to pay a bill with gift cards. Is that normal?
No. No real company, government office or utility asks for payment in gift cards. Stop, keep the cards and don't share the numbers.
How do I check a charity is real?
Look it up on the official charity register in your country, and donate through the charity's own website rather than a link in a message.
Have you had this one?
Tell other people what the message said and how it reached you. It helps someone recognise it before they tap.
No stories yet. Yours could be the one that warns someone.
Official sources and further reading
We check our guides against advice from government agencies and consumer protection bodies.
- Bargain hunters urged to stay alert to cyber scams ahead of holiday shopping season (UK National Cyber Security Centre)
- Avoiding and Reporting Gift Card Scams (US Federal Trade Commission)
- How to avoid an online shopping scam this holiday season (US Federal Trade Commission)
