More than 4 out of 5 Valentine’s Day-themed spam emails are fraudulent, Bitdefender tells us. Gifts and dating sites and apps are the favorite tools of scammers.
Did love need that? Of course not, but every year, Valentine’s Day is an ideal opportunity for hackers to trick new victims by taking advantage of last-minute purchases for example, or the need to log into a certain site or application for anyone hoping to find his soul mate. Bitdefender tells us this week that during the period from January 22 to February 8, 83% of Valentine’s Day spam emails were marked as scams.
All subjects are good for making hearts capsize
Valentine’s Day spam therefore increased significantly in the days and weeks leading up to the event. Web scammers have used various baits such as discounts, freebies on major brands, pills (through 10-year-old scam techniques, by the way), techniques supposedly approved by Yale, Harvard or Oxford to spice up your sex or love life, or even the promise of finding love behind your screen.
Among the subject lines of phishing emails detected by Bitdefender, we find the following subjects, and you will see that there is everything:
- The perfect Valentine’s Day gift, our romantic pink bear is here to make sure your loved one feels truly loved;
- Up to 90% off Valentine’s Day Poster Sales;
- Spice up your life with new romance;
- 15 bottles of wine to celebrate Valentine’s Day;
- Confirmation of receipt: 100 Valentine’s Day gifts;
- Ukrainian women are near you, go out with them for Valentine’s Day;
- Gentlemen, are you ready for Valentine’s Day?
Spam peaks a few days before Valentine’s Day
To trick their targets, cybercriminals use these spam campaigns to redirect them to malicious websites, often for extortion and blackmail purposes.
The peak was reached on Monday February 6, Tuesday February 7 and Wednesday February 8, Bitdefender explains, with the rate of Valentine’s Day-themed spam at its highest. Spam hit 33% on Bitdefender’s radars on February 6 alone, up from 6% just the day before. We also know that the United States is the country most targeted by these campaigns (45% of spam detected by the company). They are ahead of Ireland (7%) and the United Kingdom (5%).
It is therefore necessary to always remain vigilant in the face of promises that are a little too good, whether by e-mail, by SMS or on social networks, which are increasingly used to try to lure victims. Remember that recently, the earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria did not make the pirates back down to try to scam a few charitable souls…
Source: Bitdefender
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