If increases in cyberattacks this year are any indication of what to expect in the next six weeks of holiday shopping, we should expect a massive uptick in holiday-related scams. The expectation by the National Retail Foundation for this year’s holiday shopping is that we will see 4% more spending than last year. This is a slight year over year decrease (as last year saw a 5.4% increase over 2021), but still indicates increases in spending.

For phishing scammers, the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year – or so holiday phishing trends would suggest. Cyberint research shows that phishing alerts surged by 46 percent last December compared to the monthly average observed throughout the year. Similarly, an Akamai study found a 150 percent increase in phishing victims between mid-October and late November 2021.

To prevent becoming a victim of fraud, you should always keep your data in a secure location, protect your online accounts with strong passwords and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), sign up for a dark web monitoring service to receive dark web alerts, learn to spot phishing scams and more. Continue reading to learn more about fraud prevention tips you should be following.

Our friends at BlackBerry recently released an in-depth blog post on a campaign by threat actors targeting online payment businesses that discusses what happens from initial compromise to the skimmer scripts themselves. You can read their blog here. This blog is focused on what we found across the AT&T Cybersecurity customer base as we looked for the indicators of compromise (IOCs) identified in the BlackBerry blog and on the quick-follow up analysis we performed and provided to our customers.

Read also: US citizen goes to prison for purchasing stolen credentials, US imposed sanctions for money laundering for Ryuk ransomware group, and more.

"The 'Classiscam' scam-as-a-service operation has broadened its reach worldwide, targeting many more brands, countries, and industries, causing more significant financial damage than before,” touts Bleeping Computer. So just what is it?

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, artificial intelligence is a two-sided coin. Fraud protection software, like INETCO BullzAI, harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to offer fraud protection against financial criminals and cyber attackers. Conversely, fraudsters can weaponize the same technology to steal funds. A prominent example of this connection is synthetic identity fraud. This payment fraud vector often employs AI and deepfakes.

In August 2023, Netskope Threat Labs highlighted an increase in downloads of PDF phishing attachments in Microsoft Live Outlook, caused by a series of phishing campaigns targeting users of the email service. We took a closer look and found that these campaigns are mostly Amazon-themed scams with a few Apple and IRS-themed phishing attempts sprinkled throughout. Just like in our previously reported phishing blog posts, attackers are abusing free services in these campaigns.

Some common Work-From-Home (WFH) job scams you should be aware of include reshipping job scams, MLM job scams, job placement service scams, envelope stuffing and data entry job scams. Continue reading to learn about the most common work-from-home scams you should be aware of, the signs that point to a work-from-home job scam and how to avoid becoming a victim.

Read also: Ex-Navy IT manager sentenced to 5 years in prison for hacking, tech CEO gets a five-year sentence for IP addresses fraud, and more.