A new study by ZeroFOX analyzes holiday cyber scams. While focusing on 26 retail brands, the company detected 61,305 potential scams in the period from November 1 through November 20. The vast majority of these campaigns impersonated brick and mortar stores, with less common targets being tech brands and online stores.
An analysis of the keywords used in these scams revealed the following trends:
- language related to gift-giving (19.2%)
- use of the word “holiday” (7.5%)
- use of the terms “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” (1.0)%
- use of the word “donate” (0.9%)
- use of the words “Christmas” or “Thanksgiving” (0.6%)
Scammers are also advertising malicious and fake websites and apps using social media hashtags like #blackfriday, #cybermonday, and #giveaway.
Read more: How scammers use Black Friday to target consumers
