The FBI has issued a warning that online shoppers could end up losing more than $53 million to holiday scams pretending to offer too good to be true benefits and irresistible bargains.
As well as losing money, the victims could also be a product of identity theft and fraudulent card fees generated by stolen personal information obtained through phishing attacks or web skimmers.
Targeting online shoppers includes e-mail advertising that provides necessary details about hot tickets or hard-to-find items, untrusted websites and ads that promote unrealistic discounts and bargains, social media posts that offer coupons, gift cards, free gifts and content.
To steal victims’ data, the attackers remove malware or login forms on their phishing sites. Some of the stolen information includes user information, payment information and other types of personally identifiable information (PII).
The top five brands in brand phishing attacks are Microsoft with 45% of all global attempts, DHL with 26%, Amazon with 11%, BestBuy with 4% and Google with 3%.
For more information, read the original story in BleepingComputer.
