Scammy Claus Is Coming to Town: How to Outsmart Holiday Hackers in the Age of AI

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, unless you get duped into buying a PlayStation 6 from a fake Instagram store. (Spoiler: that PlayStation doesn’t exist.)

This holiday season, everyone’s in a rush to check off their wish lists, including scammers. Our latest Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report: Holiday* reveals a not-so-merry trend: as people lean into AI tools and social media ads for faster and easier shopping, cybercriminals are leaning in, too.

Gift guides or grinches? How AI and social media can make (or break) your holiday

From personalized gift ideas to one-click shopping, AI and social media have become the go-to tools for holiday convenience – over half of people (54%) buy straight from social media ads and half plan to use social media platforms to help find gift ideas, up from 39% last year.

The problem? More than 50% of scams on those platforms come from — you guessed it — fake ads and shady sellers according to a recent Gen Threat Report. And unsurprisingly, 62% of people say they’re afraid of AI-generated scams.

Dashing through the sales — straight into a scam?

Let’s be honest: nothing feels better than snagging a great deal during the holidays, and 62% of people say they’d buy instantly when they see a deal without checking if it’s legit. Additionally, according to the report, here’s what people, particularly millennials, are doing:

• Clicking on social ads that seem suspicious (42%)
• Buying gifts from strangers on social media (28%)
• Purchasing through an unknown website or seller (21%)

These habits are making scammers' dreams come true, with 31% of Americans having been targeted by a holiday scam and over half of them falling for it.

And the risk is surging. According to the Better Business Bureau, online holiday shopping scams jumped 125% from the 2023 to 2024 holiday season. 

Just ask Annette Wilson, a Chicagoan who thought she scored a deal on jeans for “a dollar or two,” but the order never arrived. After two months of fruitless refund attempts, she turned to the BBB. She now warns others: “It’s so easy to get caught up in that great deal, and the deal is you’ve been had.”

5 quick ways to protect your holiday shopping 

Thankfully, you don’t need to cancel your holiday shopping plans. Here are 5 practical tips to shop smarter and help keep you merry all season long:

1. Pause before purchasing

If a deal seems too good to be true, double-check and verify the source. Real brands rarely use urgency tricks or unverified links.

2. Stick to trusted retailers

Avoid buying through unfamiliar social media accounts or clicking on DMs from “brands” that just popped up. Try to shop from reputable retailers with web addresses that begin with HTTPS. 

If you’re shopping on your mobile device, use official retailer apps instead of your web browser for added security.

3. Use AI cautiously

If you’re using AI for gift inspiration, use it to spark ideas instead of allowing AI to directly purchase those gifts for you. Additionally, always verify any links it provides before clicking on them.

4. Keep an eye on your deliveries  

With the surge in postal delivery phishing scams during the holiday season and AI helping scammers make them look even more convincing, monitor what you’ve ordered and when it’s expected to arrive. You can also leverage features like Scam Protection included with Norton 360 Deluxe, which uses AI to protect against SMS scams with Safe SMS and helps you verify suspicious links.

5. Let security tools be your holiday helpers

Install comprehensive device protection software like Norton 360 Deluxe, Norton VPN, and Norton Mobile Security to help identify phishing attempts, block fake websites, and keep your info safe.

So, let’s talk about how you can avoid gifting your personal info to a scammer this season! Before you go clicking on that “limited-time deal” or letting ChatGPT plan your entire gift list, mark your calendars for Cyber Safety Sunday on November 30. Observed the Sunday before Cyber Monday, this Norton-created holiday reminding shoppers to pause, check their digital defenses, and stay scam-savvy before one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. It’s all about protecting your personal info while scoring great deals. Scammy Claus is out there, but with the right tools and a little know-how, you’ll stay safely off his list.

To learn more about these findings, check out the full Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report: Holiday.

*Data within this blog is based on US survey results. Global data can be found here: https://newsroom.gendigital.com/Norton-Cyber-Safety-Insights-Holiday-2025