Is cybercrime seasonal? Why online scammers love Valentine's Day
I started contemplating this subject in December and at the time of writing it is now past Valentine’s Day and rapidly heading towards Easter. The year ahead for cybercriminals is a busy one, bouncing from one public holiday to another, using any excuse as an opportunity to dream up another too-good-to-be-true online offer. The past three months have produced a staggering range of cybercrime.
December
December was a busy time for online counterfeiters, fraudsters and other digital criminals. On ‘Cyber Monday’—December 17, 2012—$1.25 billion was racked up in online sales. At this time NetNames saw a huge increase in the number of online offers for sale for the most popular toys such as the new Furby, the Leap Pad 2 and the Nintendo WiiU. NetNames discovered more than 88,000 listings for popular Christmas toys on one well-known marketplace site alone—a good proportion of which off ered counterfeit products from well-known brands.
The reason online sale of counterfeit goods is so abundant in December is simply because the legitimate online sales outlets all offer reductions in order to stimulate sales, which makes it more difficult for the online shopper to discern the legitimate offer from the illegal one. Also, with the more well-known shopping sites selling out of the most popular items, shoppers desperate for those ‘must-have’ products will cast their net further than usual.
Other types of illegal or infringing activities particularly strong in December include:
