Fraudsters love the holidays because the volume of online credit card transactions is higher than at any other time of the year. The holidays are a great reason to scam people into giving up their
information. In fact, Internet security executives tell users they can expect twice as many phishing attacks this holiday season. Phishers gain access to sensitive information by sending out spam or
by propping up fraudulent Web sites requesting credit card, home address or social security numbers. Last December there were 8,829 phishing scams; this October there were 15,820, according to e-mail
management firm MailFrontier. Apparently security controls at major shopping sites are relaxed during the holidays in order to handle the volume of visitors, says the Cnet article. Online shoppers
should not be lulled into a false sense of security; popular scams this year include those involving charity and donation groups and e-mails purporting to be from well-known brands like eBay.
Read the whole story at Cnet News »
