They did it in the past, they'll do it the future, and they're doing it now. Of course we're talking about scammers capitalizing on major holidays, in this case Mother's Day, in hopes of stealing from susceptible online shoppers.
With Mother's Day just a few days away, researchers at the security firm McAfee have noted an uptick in the number of spam campaigns circulating around the Web, offering flowers and a variety of different knockoff products, including fake Rolex watches.
The emails come with subject lines including, "Make your mother happy," "Mother's Day inventory," "Mother's Day Flowers For Under $20? Yep, This Is For Real," and the particularly guilt-inducing, "Do you love your mom? Show her by ordering beautiful flowers for 30% off."
Many of the annoying spam messages McAfee found include embedded links to websites that could, if you navigate to them, make off with your credit card information, drop harmful malware on your system or, at the very least, bombard you with more bogus gift offers.
"Should you buy one of these fake watches for your mother, or for anyone? McAfee said. "Not from these people. Watch out for these emails and don't click on the links in them."