Valentine's Day Deals 2012: Spam Awaits Unsuspecting Lovers

Cupid is not the only one who is busy shooting his arrows on Valentine Day's. Using social engineering methods such as stimulative and romantic, sweet title or catchy words, spammers are also targeting consumers who are trying to find a good gift online for his/her Valentine, warns global computer security firm Kaspersky lab

Beware of e-mails with attractive words or deceptive offers to lure online lovers on Valentine's Day as they could be from unknown source or spammers on hacking spree to steal personal details, including credit card numbers, Moscow-based Kaspersky spam analyst Maria Namestnikova said in a statement.

According to Kaspersky, e-mail advertising of goods or services using 'coupon' in the subject line are often getting found. The company recently detected a spam mail disguising as Groupon's discount offer on a Valentine's Day special gift

Though use of coupon services is a legitimate method of advertising, their popularity brings with it potential threats of phishing attacks. Users should be careful in opening such mails as they could be a trick by spammers to attract their attention on a romantic occasion to gain access to their personal details, the Kaspersky analyst warned.

Especially one should watch out for emails that ask the person to download a particular link. The link, when opened, could ask for the person's log-in information and could even activate a malware.

Large organizations do not ask their customers to send login and password via e-mail, as any such request would be an attempt at stealing personal accounts, the analyst observed.

Kaspersky has also advised users not to open coupon services which users have not registered for or which users have not ordered.