Valentine's Day Spam on the Rise

Security researchers warn of a wave of Valentine's Day-themed spam emails hitting people's inboxes and promoting counterfeit products.

"It’s February, and that means Valentine’s Day-related spam. Lots of it!" warns Kaspersky Lab expert Darya Gudkova.

"There are already loads of adverts offering expensive alcohol and chocolates, jewellery and leather goods, romantic trips for two etc.," the researcher notes.

As always, buying from spam is not advisable. The deals might look great, but the return on investment will likely be a disappointment, if the products are even delivered.

In addition, there is a great chance that credit card details used in such purchases will later be abused by cybercriminals, since these online shops are not run by reputable businesses.

Symantec also issued a warning regarding a spike in Valentine's Day spam and even released some statistics about the specific categories seen so far.

Product spam, which includes replica watches and other fake designer goods, accounts for 50% of the Valentine's Day spam activity so far.

The Internet category, which includes items like wallpapers, e-cards and other services, is also popular with a ratio 31%.

Meds, particularly male enhancement ones, account for 11% of spam traffic, while 7% of Valentine's Day junk emails are about dating services.

"Spammers are  gearing up for Valentine’s Day with several offers like product spam, gift cards, personalised cards, and financial spam.

"Symantec has been  observing Valentine’s Day-related spam since early January and we have recently seen a spike in product spam related to the event," said Symantec researcher Samir Patil.

Users are also advised about search engine spam surrounding the holiday, especially since the use of this tactic has exploded during the past year. Compromised legit websites are commonly abused to poison search engine results for particular terms and direct users to spam or malware distribution Web pages.