14 DAY TRIAL // Security researchers warn that spam campaigns targeting the upcoming holiday shopping season have already been spotted in the wild.
One wave of emails caught recently in Trend Micro's spam traps tries to entice recipients with significant price cuts for male enhancement pills.
It claims the discounts are part of a Black Friday sale, which is known as the busiest shopping day of the year.
These pills are from unregulated sources and can cause significant health problems. Users are strongly advised against buying medical products from spam.
A second spam campaign detected by the security vendor targets people looking for Christmas gifts. These emails direct users to a website advertising replica watches, bags, and jewelry at very low prices.
"If previous years are any indication [...] it is safe to say that these attacks are only the beginning. We expect to see more of these threats, as the holiday season rolls in," warns Nino Penoliar, an anti-spam research engineer at the security vendor.
Meanwhile, McAfee has compiled a list of the twelve most dangerous scams encountered during the holidays, which has fake iPad offers at the top.
Users are also warned about advance-fee scams in which alleged friends claim they got stranded and need money to get home.
Free gift cards, which are in high demand from holiday shoppers, are also used to trick users into exposing their personal information.
In addition, the list includes fake job offers, suspicious holiday rentals, fake greeting cards, charity and recession scams, dangerous holiday-themed downloads, low price traps and SMS phishing (smishing) attacks.
McAfee also advises users to be extra careful when using unsecured wireless networks like those those at airports or hotels, because they can be exposed to man-in-the-middle attacks.
"Scams continue to be big business for cybercriminals who have their sights set on capitalizing on open hearts and wallets this holiday season," said Dave Marcus, director of security research for McAfee Labs.