The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned today that online shoppers are at risk of losing more than $53 million during this year's holiday season to scams promising bargains and hard-to-find gifts.
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“During the 2020 holiday shopping season, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 17,000 complaints regarding non-delivery of goods, resulting in losses of more than $53 million,” said in a public service announcement, issued through the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
«It is expected that this number could increase during the holiday period of 2021 due to rumors of product shortages and the ongoing pandemic».
In addition to losing money, scammers' targets also risk falling victim to identity theft and fraudulent card charges after their personal or financial information is stolen by online skimmers or phishing.
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According to the FBI, while they target online shoppers during the holidays, scammers use various tactics to deceive them, including discounts that seem too good to be true:
- E-mails that advertise hot-ticket or hard-to-find items, such as event tickets or gambling systems.
- Unreliable websites and ads that promote unrealistic discounts and offers.
- Social media posts that often appear to have been shared by a known friend, offering coupons, gift cards, free items and contests.
- Social media platforms hosted ads for non-existent or fake items.
This warning follows a similar warning issued on Tuesday by the FBI regarding ongoing phishing messages targeting customers of «brand» companies» in attacks known as «brand phishing».
See also: FBI: Warns of brand phishing targeting high-profile customers
Attackers embed malicious software or login forms on their phishing pages to steal user credentials of victims, payment details, and other types of personal information (PII).
Check Point revealed at the Brand Phishing Exhibition for Q2 2021 that the top five brands appearing in brand phishing attacks are Microsoft (representing 45% of all attempts worldwide), DHL (26%), Amazon (11%), BestBuy (4%) and Google (3%).
