Black Friday Alert 2019: Net Shopping Bag of Threats

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Every year, Kaspersky releases an annual Black Friday alert to highlight how fraudsters may capitalize on increased levels of online shopping at this time of year when many brands are offering their customers appealing discounts. In the rush to get a big discount or, even more panic-inducing, a limited time offer, many shoppers lose all sense of vigilance. Caution goes out the window and consumers start tapping on links and email vouchers without their usual care and attention.

Spam and Phishing
Unfortunately, online shopping at this time of year needs more security-awareness, not less. It is the peak season for phishers and spammers. Along with many genuine offers, there also lurk phishing scams ready to reel in an unwitting bargain hunter’s bank details. By clicking on a too-good-to-be-true discount link online without checking it’s genuine, you could find yourself at a fake marketplace, that may look indistinguishable from the real website. On these sites, entering your bank details could result in money leaving your account, but no package arriving at your door.

Since Kaspersky has been analyzing financial phishing activity, which began in 2013, there has been a steady rise in threats – peaking at 54% in 2017. However, last year this trend did slow down and decrease. The figure dropped to 44.70%. Financial phishing attacks are still expected to be a big risk around the upcoming Black Friday event, and there will be close analysis to see if the figure rises once more.

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