Black Friday scams and Cyber Monday schemes are designed to trick unsuspecting Australians out of their money and/or financial information. Specifically, fraudsters will target consumers by attempting to steal their credit card numbers (and use them for a carding scam), bank account numbers, and much more.
The news was substantiated by the latest report released in November by Imperva. Which outlines that In Australian retail, overall cyberattacks have almost tripled (285%) in the first half of this year compared to the corresponding period in 2021.
Notable growth has come from automated threats, which makes up 69% of all security incidents in the past 12 months. Tony Mascarenhas, Area Vice President for ANZ. Says “The holiday shopping season is a critical period for the retail industry, and security incidents could disrupt business operations, damage consumer trust and undermine retailers’ bottom line."
Phishing is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but modern day phishing attacks have become more sophisticated. In the fake order scam, con artists will send cryptic text messages or unsolicited emails to notify you of a "problem" with your online order. The scammer's objective is to acquire as much information from the victim gathering phone numbers, social media accounts and email addresses for one common purpose — to commit fraud.
"Events in recent weeks have highlighted that cybercriminals are targeting the personal data of Australians and the companies that hold that information" says, Tony
With a surge in the past 12 months, nearly 40% of traffic on retailers’ websites didn’t come from a human. Instead, it came from a bot, software applications controlled by operators that run automated tasks, is demonstrating that retailers and online customers must maintain cyber awareness.
The Imperva report outlines the traffic on retailers’ websites, nearly one-quarter (23.7%) was attributed specifically to bad bots.
In light of the risky environment The Imperva Regional boss Mr Mascarenhas highlights "The need for a unified approach, is one that focuses on the protection of data and is equipped to mitigate attacks quickly without disrupting shoppers.”
It is almost certain that further online incidents from online shoppers will be in the news without appropriate digital precautions implemented.
