Newswise — The holiday season is in full swing. The bells are ringing and the slush is glistening. But while we’re busy cozying up to the fire, scammers are up to their no-good tricks.

In the frenzy of online gift shopping, digital season’s-greetings and one-click purchases, our usual cyber vigilance can fall by the wayside. And that’s when scammers go phishing. It’s enough to temper anyone’s holiday zeal.

Benoit Dupont, a professor in Université de Montréal’s School of Criminology and the holder of the Research Chair in Cybercrime Prevention and the Canada Research Chair in Cyber Resilience, gives us the breakdown on cybercrime and how to avoid holiday scams.