As the holiday season barrels to a conclusion, malicious actors are attempting to take advantage of harried consumers by ramping up the volume of spam and phishing attacks in the form of unsolicited emails and email-based threats — and businesses stand to suffer.
A report from Bitdefender Antispam Lab found the volume of Christmas-themed spam has increased consistently since Nov. 27, with spikes in unsolicited correspondence observed between Dec. 6 and Dec. 9.
Scammers are employing the tried-and-true tactics of bogus surveys, online holiday dating opportunities, adult content offers, and discount shopping for designer goods.
Major corporations, including Netflix and Lowes, have been among the spoof subjects, enticing consumers with exclusive offers and cash giveaways — the catch being they must first enter credit card numbers or banking information, of course.
A recent study found more than a third of Americans have fallen victim to online shopping scams during the holidays, losing $387 on average as a result.
Alina Bizga, security analyst at Bitdefender, explains that threat actors are savvy when it comes to targeting. The holiday season tends to bring a host of socially engineered promotional campaigns aimed at fooling account holders to harvest their credentials and perform other nefarious activities.
“They update their tactics, and lures, and take note of consumer behaviors, timing their social engineering attacks to catch users off guard and steal sensitive personal…
