Online Christmas shoppers warned over fake deliveries scam

metro.co.uk Cyber criminals are targeting Christmas shoppers with scams designed to cash in on record online shopping, security experts have warned. One ‘phishing’ con sees fraudsters circulate thousands of emails disguised as Amazon order notifications. The fake messages contain ‘malware’ which takes an inventory of all running processes on the infected machine and steals all auto-complete passwords from Mozilla Firefox. Fred Touchette, of web security company AppRiver, said: ‘Fake invoice scams are year-round but they are so much more effective during that time of year almost everyone is expecting packages from their online purchases. Be on the lookout for these attempts to take advantage of the season. They are out in full force.’ He said the scam also sought to take advantage of an Amazon promotion offering a 30-day free trial of its prime service, which allows customers to receive free next-day delivery. Ahead of Cyber Monday, officials from the US and ten other countries seized 706 domain names set up to dupe consumers into buying fake goods.