Bitdefender has issued an advisory to warn users about the risks

Feb 6, 2013 10:26 GMT  ·  By

Cybercriminals and scammers take advantage of every major event or holiday to launch their malicious campaigns, and Valentine’ Day is no exception. Bitdefender has issued an alert to warn users about the Valentine-themed scams currently doing the rounds.

This year, scammers are offering all sorts of things, including Valentine’s Day games, Android applications, wallpapers, perfumes and limousines.

As expected, Facebook is also being flooded with shady posts that attempt to lure users to malicious websites.

Users from the United Kingdom are targeted with flower and perfume scams, while Germans are lured to Trojan-serving e-card websites through black hat SEO techniques.

“Scammers have taken a shotgun approach to lovers on Valentine’s, with dating spam counting for almost 7 percent of all spam sent around the globe,” explained Bitdefender Chief Security Strategist Catalin Cosoi.

“Valentine’s Day brings an increase of romance scams, so people should be careful to avoid fake dating websites, love giveaways and phony social media profiles. These all collect their personal details for impersonation, extortion and money muling.”

In order to avoid falling victim to such schemes, experts advise you to stay off untrusted websites. If you plan on downloading Valentine-themed apps or games for your mobile device, be sure to get them only from trusted application markets.

The same applies to most services. Romantic dinners, chocolate offers, diamond rings, flowers – none of them should be ordered from websites advertised via spam.

Remembers the golden rule: if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Those who don’t follow these rules expose themselves to various risks. Crooks might be trying to sell you counterfeit products, install malware on your computer or even steal your identity.

Check out the gallery below to see what these scams look like:

Photo Gallery (6 Images)

Valentine's Day scam
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