Sometimes love can be dangerous — and that’s certainly the case as Valentine’s Day approaches. And while we can’t help you dodge forgotten cards and gifts, unrequited love, or simple heartbreak, we can help keep your bank balance intact.
As the big day approaches, many of us will search for last minute flowers, cards and gifts. And we’ll turn to Google (in the main) or other search engines to do so. Don’t.
The cyber sleuths at Check Point warn that in January alone, they “observed over 18,000 new Valentine’s/love-related websites, marking a 5% increase compared to the previous month. Of these, 1 in 72 newly registered websites were identified as malicious or risky. Specifically focusing on Valentine’s-related websites, there was a 123% increase in newly registered websites in the past month.”
Thankfully, many of these new phishing websites are not that hard to spot, as proven by one domain monitoring team promoting its services. @whoisxmlapi says it used its toolkit to “detect newly registered domains themed around Valentine’s Day.” This was done primarily by stringing key words together. Valentine plus day plus deal, being an example given, and listing out the newly registered domains they found.
Check Point’s advice to avoid a Valentine’s Day phishing trip is as follows:
- Do not engage with emails from unknown senders or even familiar brands where the email is unsolicited. Certainly don’t click links or attachments.
- Delete emails and texts that might be malicious or at best spammy.
- Never share credentials.
- Beware of offers that seem too good to be true — they are.
- If you want to shop a brand, go to a website you know, don’t click through on a promotion of any kind.
Avoiding all these Valentine’s Day websites is not the only trap to dodge. Those not in relationships or playing by flexible rules need to be very wary of romance scams. Just as with phishing, that’s a threat that’s getting worse and harder to detect.
The FBI warns that “romance scammers are working to be your ‘perfect match’; what might begin as a seemingly innocent connection can quickly turn sinister as criminals cash in on those looking for companionship.”
Again, the rules to staying safe are largely common sense. Don’t overshare on social media, it just helps scammers craft an attack. Don ‘t be talked into leaving well known dating sites and moving to private messaging, stick to dating brands you know, and never send financial gifts or believe that a family member of the person you’re messaging is unwell or stuck overseas and needs your help. That’s always a scam.
Americans tend to lose around $1 billion a year on romance scams. It’s a big and rewarding business, and one that benefits from reluctance on the part of those defrauded to report the crime. Don’t join the stats. As the FTC says, “love stinks when a scammer is involved,” warning that “anyone can be targeted if they’re on a dating app or if they just have a social media presence and respond to a message from someone they don’t know.” Remember, scammers do this for a living. They’re good at it.
