Last year, one in four people fell victim to fraud during the holiday season. And according to Signifyd’s latest Fraud Pressure Index, which charts the percentage of high-risk transactions over the company’s commerce network, fraud is hitting an all-time high. Fraud peaks during the year-end holidays. Scammers know that consumers, rushing around and looking for bargains, are prone to let their guards down a bit more than usual this time of year. To prepare for this spike in fraud, businesses – especially those in the retail space – should look to increase their own security measures. Investing in robust data protection and being clear about security protocols will give customers peace of mind that their personal data is secure, keeping their wallets safe this holiday season.
Five scams you’ll likely see:
- Fake delivery notifications
- Fake shopping sites and sellers
- Fake gift cards and vouchers
- Fake charities
- Fake travel offers
Analyst Notes
Social engineering remains one of the most common ways for threat actors to gain an initial foothold on your network. During the holiday season there will be a surge of phishing campaigns and malicious links following the five themes listed above. Educate your users on spotting and reporting phishing emails, to hover over links before clicking to see if they go to suspicious domains, and to never enable Office macros on downloaded documents unless absolutely certain it is something they expect to receive and there is a business need for the Office macros in the document. Having good endpoint detection with an EDR and a SOC to triage alerts or a managed security service like Binary Defense to triage alerts for you is also crucial because no matter how well you train your employees, someone is eventually going to make a mistake. Catching computer intrusions in the earliest stage is the best way to prevent major damage from ransomware and data breaches.
