Online christmas shoppings are the target for cybercriminals

Online shopping helps consumers avoid traffic, crowds, the hustle and bustle of stores and the last-minute shopping rush. On the other hand, as the number of online purchases increases, so does the likelihood of encountering phishing scams, because unfortunately, with all the excitement surrounding the New Year's Eve, consumers are putting security in the background.

Online christmas shoppings are the target for cybercriminals

According to the Kaspersky Digital Payments Survey, 52% of respondents living in the Middle East region have encountered phishing scams while using online banking or mobile wallet services. 49% encountered personally imitated websites, while 48% faced scams using social engineering (via text messages or calls). When people were asked if they were aware of threats to digital payment methods, 87% of respondents said they were aware of online scams. In addition to all these figures, Kaspersky solutions also blocked 1,233,293 financial phishing attacks targeting Middle Eastern organizations in the first half of the year.

Phishing remains the most popular method used by cybercriminals to persuade consumers to hand over their personal data and credit card information. In this method, popular brands that offer holiday promotions to consumers are mostly used as bait so that customers' financial data and account information can be stolen.

“The period we are living in as a New Year's holiday in some countries and the normal flow of New Year's in some countries is one of the special periods of the year where we witness an increase in cybercrime activities. Since every action has a consequence, our increased online activities during this period attract the attention of cybercriminals lurking on the internet. They immediately abuse people's excitement and go to great lengths to create fake websites to encourage consumers to share their valuable data.