Cyber criminals rush to the Internet during the holiday shopping season

[mandy]

Throughout this holiday season, experts are predicting that more people than ever will duck the malls and shop with their computers. But the comfort and ease that make online shopping so appealing have a dark side.

But like moths to a flame, spammers, phishers and all manner of other cyber criminals rush to the Internet during the holiday shopping season to prey on unsuspecting shoppers.

"The bad news is that criminals are not going away," Tim McDowd of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, told InternetNews.com. "The good news is that there are things you can do to protect your PC," as well as commonsense practices to guard against online criminals...

full article: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3712581

[mandy]

A related article:

Clump adds that electronic games, consumer electronics and apparel also are highly susceptible to being purchased online fraudulently this year, based on online fraud data Retail Decisions has compiled so far this year.

From June through November of this year, Retail Decisions has recorded a 38% year-over-year increase in attempted online fraud. This compares to a 29% year-over-year rise in the total volume of transactions during the same period. “In other words, fraud attempts are increasing more rapidly than the market is expanding,” Clump says.

In addition to online gift card scams, criminals are also increasing holiday season e-mail phishing attacks, which mimic legitimate brands of retailers and other types of companies to trick consumers into revealing personal information that can be used to make fraudulent online payment transactions...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=24731