{"id":34429,"date":"2019-02-18T14:50:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T06:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=34429"},"modified":"2019-02-18T14:50:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T06:50:37","slug":"how-not-to-lose-your-money-while-losing-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2019\/02\/18\/how-not-to-lose-your-money-while-losing-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"How not to lose your money while losing your heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kaspersky Lab experts detected a sharp increase in phishing activities from criminals offering users various romantic goods on the eve of Valentine\u2019s Day. The total number of \u00a0user attempts to visit fraudulent websites with a romantic theme that were detected and blocked during the first half of February more than doubled compared to the same time in 2018, a reminder that fraudsters are always looking for an excuse to steal users\u2019 data and money.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phishing is one of the most popular and easiest social engineering techniques to exploit online users. It is a type of fraud where criminals use deception to acquire users\u2019 credentials \u2013 from passwords to credit card numbers, bank account details and other financially important information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phishing emails and websites usually come disguised as legitimate ones that encourage a recipient, for one reason or another, to urgently enter their personal data. They are often fueled by the news agenda, be it major sport event or thematic holidays. Valentine\u2019s Day is no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall number of user attempts to visit fraudulent websites that were <\/strong>detected and blocked by Kaspersky Lab solutions in the first half of February 2019 \u2013 the days leading up to February 14th \u2013 dramatically peaked from over two million in 2018 to more than 4.3 million this year. According to statistics, the most affected countries were Brazil (a more than 6.4% share of detections), Portugal (more than 5.8%), and Venezuela (5.5%). They were followed by Greece (5.3%) and Spain (5.1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deeper analysis into the sent emails has shown that fraudsters are particularly exploiting pre-order gift items and performance enhancing drugs as a trap to lure users into sharing their credentials in order to please their loved ones. This again proves the findings<\/a> of Kaspersky Lab\u2019s own survey, indicating that when it comes to love, users tend to lose their vigilance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur research has shown that there is no difference between phishing activities exploiting major sporting events, fake payment bills, or a more romantic pretext. They all just need to drive users\u2019 emotions, be it excitement, stress, or love. Thus, almost anything can become an attack tool in the cyber fraudsters\u2019 hands. The detected spike reminds us that we should always be cautious when surfing the web even we are just buying flowers for our loved one,\u201d warns Andrey Kostin, Senior Web-Content Analyst at Kaspersky Lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky Lab advice for staying safe: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n