Scammers Fall in Love with Valentine's Day

US-CERT and Cupid don't often keep company, but this Valentine's Day is being marked by new threats to those seeking romance and new warnings from the federal cybersecurity group.

A notice from US-CERT points to an FTC blog post about how consumers can protect themselves from online scams involving dating sites, personal messaging systems, and the promise of romance and companionship from online strangers.

The general warning comes as specific scams are being exposed by online researchers. For example, researchers at Agari Data have followed a Nigeria-based group dubbed "Scarlet Widow" since 2017 as they exploited vulnerable populations, moving from romantic "attacks" against isolated farmers and individuals with disabilities to business email compromises that raised the financial stakes.

Security experts aren't optimistic about finding a quick solution.

"These types of scams will not be disappearing anytime soon," says Anupam Sahai, vice president of product management at Cavirin. "Certain times of the year, Valentine's Day included, bring out both the best and the worst in us. Here, hackers prey on those most vulnerable, especially those who are possibly recovering from a family tragedy without a support network. Given the emotions, it is no surprise that romance scam losses, averaging $2,600 each, are seven times greater than most other frauds."

The primary issue is that these attacks aren't assaults on technology vulnerabilities — they prey on human limitations.

"These kinds of romance scams are very targeted social engineering attacks, effectively 'hacking' the victim's emotions rather than trying to perform a technical assault," says Nathan Wenzler, senior director of cybersecurity at Moss Adams. "Unfortunately, these kinds of attacks are becoming more and more commonplace, not only because of the large financial incentive, but because it has become easier than ever to tailor these scams for each individual victim."

Online dating profiles and social media accounts add to the rich data sources that allow criminals to tailor attacks as they look to exploit individuals in the same way that spear-phishing attacks exploit corporate employees to extract credentials and critical business data.

The FTC provides tips for avoiding victimization that include never sending money to an online romantic contact, taking the relationship slowly, doing an online image search to see whether the photo for the person's account appears with a different name, and discussing the relationship with friends and family members from real life. US-Cert has its own set of tips for staying safe on social media.

"No matter how desirable a person may sound online, everyone must tread with caution," says Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra. "Only trust those you know in person, and even then be cautious. In our connected society, everyone needs to remember a basic rule we were taught as a child, especially with people you can’t even look in the eye: Don't talk to strangers."

Related Content:

Join Dark Reading LIVE for two cybersecurity summits at Interop 2019. Learn from the industry's most knowledgeable IT security experts. Check out the Interop agenda here.