Beware the fake Valentine!

If you’re coupled up or happen to have lots of secret admirers, you’re probably looking forward to Valentines Day this year but spare a thought for your poor colleagues in IT, many of whom will be dealing with the spurious advances of Valentines hackers, if recent reports are to be believed.

Fraudsters are expected to take advantage of loved up internet users by launching a series of online attacks. Users of social networking sites such as Facebook could receive Valentine messages, seemingly from people on their friends list, and will be urged to click on a link to receive virtual chocolates or roses. Instead, they’re likely to be hit with a computer virus instead.

“The success of such a campaign is in the numbers. For this, the hacker adds a key ingredient – automation. Using an automated tool, the hacker scrapes your friends list from Facebook as well as turning them into a phishing mail, all in a single click of the mouse, to spread their virus”, warned Amichai Shulman, CTO of Imperva.

For those on the receiving end, the advice is to be vigilant. Check the source of the message and make sure it’s someone you know (the chances are your ex-boss wouldn’t send you a Valentine’s Day message unless you’ve got a very complicated relationship!)

Shulman also advises users not to follow links or download software referencing unsolicited spam and to make sure that your anti-virus software is enabled and up to date. “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Nothing bad will happen if you simply hit delete”, he added.

Unfortunately if that message did happen to be from a secret admirer, you may have missed out. Let’s hope cupid finds another way of delivering those sweethearts to your door!