‘Tis the Sceazon

For the past week my spam folder has been bursting with an unusual amount of entries, mostly from “delivery request information” or “payment requests”.

Just today, 3 made it past the spam filter and into my inbox, all payment requests notifications with attachments – attachments that the spam filter stripped and I hadn’t seen before.

The attachments are zip files, most likely containing some sort of malicious code, even more likely, something that will either capture all my activity in hopes of finding bank and/or credit card numbers.

Luckily there’s 2 things working in my favor to keep this from being a problem, 1 I’m on a Mac, and 2 it’s a fairly old trick that’s been reported before.

But, they are getting clever. The latest one was a payment request from “Converse”, and oddly enough my wife is a converse “chucks” freak. If I had happened to order her a pair of chucks for xmas (which I haven’t) and I wasn’t aware that a zip file is a major red flag for computer danger, I may have fallen for it.

The sad part about all this came to me when I associated the mass amounts of spam are coinciding with the fast approaching holidays. A time where many people will be purchasing items on-line thus typing in their credit and debit card numbers repeatedly.

It’s sad, yet not surprising, that cyber hackers are ramping for the holidays with as much gusto as the major retail chains. Sadder still, there will people innocent victims that fall for some of these scams.

Ruining holidays should be best left the time honored traditions: Family gatherings, scarce parking, and department store brawls, cyber hackers can have the rest of the year.