The FBI’s San Francisco field office issued a Dec. 11 advisory detailing common holiday scams, including fake shopping sites, bogus charity solicitations, spoofed delivery notices and gift‑card payment ruses. The release urges verification of sellers, use of secure payment methods, enabling multi‑factor authentication and reporting incidents to IC3.

On December 11, 2025, the FBI San Francisco field office published a holiday‑season advisory outlining frequent fraud patterns that spike during gift‑giving and charitable drives. The release catalogs deceptive tactics: counterfeit e‑commerce sites and ads that steal payment data, fraudulent charity solicitations that exploit seasonal generosity, spoofed courier messages that phish credentials or trigger malware, and schemes demanding payment by gift card or cryptocurrency. Investigators highlighted telltale red flags—urgent payment requests, refusals of traceable payment methods, requests for gift‑card numbers or PINs, and tampered or remailed cards—and recommended concrete defenses: verify sellers through independent research, use credit cards or trusted payment platforms, enable multi‑factor authentication, keep software updated, and preserve transaction records. The advisory also provided reporting pathways, encouraging consumers and businesses to file complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and local law enforcement to aid investigations and public awareness.