Security: Spam for the Holidays

Computer users will see more viruses, spam, and phishing during this holiday season.
By Priya Ganapati
November 17, 2005

Online consumers should click their way carefully through the holiday season, security experts warned Thursday, because spam will double, computer viruses will multiply, credit card thefts will soar, and online scams will increase as cyber thieves intensify their efforts.

The volume of spam flooding email inboxes is likely to double, peaking on Wednesday—the day before Thanksgiving, according to AppRiver, a Gulf Breeze, Florida-based spam and virus filtering service provider.

The increase is part of an annual pattern that spam-filtering services providers have been seeing for the last three years.

“Spammers realize that this is the best time to advertise to users as shopping peaks during this season and users are looking to buy something,” said Joel Smith, co-founder and chief technical officer of AppRiver.

Among the products being touted are personalized Christmas ornaments, Santa letters, and gift cards from Sears, Costco, and Home Depot. Almost all of these are fakes, and users who do fall for them are unlikely to receive the products, said AppRiver.

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