There was a time when spam wasn’t considered dangerous; it was merely obnoxious. Unfortunately, it seems that time is quickly coming to an end. For example, take the recent article on CNN.com: “Cyber crime poses threat to e-commerce.” The article—about increasing trends in online spam and related fraud—cites a statistic from antivirus-software provider Symantec which claims that the percentage of spam that contains malicious software has increased 900% over last year.

Additionally, as perpetrators of online crime get smarter and savvier, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between legitimate email and spam. Especially during the holidays—a busy time for fraudsters, as we’ve already discussed—there are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of the upswing in online shopping for Christmas. For example, take a look at the top 10 subject lines for seasonal spam, as reported in the December issue of Symantec’s monthly report, State of Spam:

1. Sales Receipt from Amazon
2. Sales Order from walmart.com
3. Incredible sale for luxury goods
4. Re: what she wants for Christmas
5. Give her luxury this holiday season
6. Bling yourself up this Christmas
7. Get the perfect gift for Christmas
8. Impress your friends this holiday season
9. Xmas on-line cookies
10. Time limited Christmas promotion

It’s worth noting that the top two subject lines both incorporate the names of well-known online retailers, in a devious attempt to make the spam seem legitimate. Unfortunately, these emails could very well end up being malware designed to steal credit and identity information.

While this is certainly something important for individuals to be vigilant about, it should also be a serious concern for online merchants. Why? Two reasons, #1. These kind of schemes are going to make online users increasingly suspicious and therefore less responsive to legitimate advertising, and less likely to participate in online shopping. #2 (We just can’t say it enough) At the end of the day what online criminals are after is money, so as they become increasingly successful at running online spam and phishing schemes, they will turn increasingly to online businesses to “cash out.”

One way for online businesses to keep up with changing fraud trends and protect themselves from malware and scams is to work together to provide information on what kinds of fraud and trends other online businesses are facing. In the real world, when law enforcement simply isn’t enough we turn to our neighbors to help watch for crime and protect each other. The same is possible online. iovation provides a platform that allows businesses to join forces to expose Internet devices that have defrauded other businesses so they can better protect their businesses from fraudulent transactions and other scams that are on the rise.

Tags: ecommerce spam, holiday spam, Online Fraud, retail spam, Symantec spam report

This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Holiday Fraud, Online Retail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.