Holiday Shopping Phishing Campaigns on the rise

Historically as the holidays approach, attackers shift their phishing lures towards holiday sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.

Security researchers have witnessed an 80% spike in phishing campaigns containing words like “offer”, “sale” and “cheap” since the start of November.

One example was a phishing attempt using the jewelry company Pandora offering products extremely cheap. Fortunately the email contained many red flags like misspellings, and the URL embedded did not lead to Pandora’s site.

As a reminder:

– Avoid bargains that appear too good to be true. They often are.
– Always review the URL in an email and confirm it will direct you to where you expect.
– Review the email for errors
– Avoid attachments from unknown senders