Saint Valentine’s Day has as many lovers as haters. From those that love to spend the day with their significant other, or even celebrate singledom with friends, to those that hate being told when they should celebrate being in love.

What none of us are free from, however, are the ways in which cybercriminals try to trick us online. These criminals use any opportunity to claim new victims and this time of the year is no different – what may start out as a wonderful date could end up being a marriage from hell!

Valentine’s Day Bargains

Over the course of the next few days we will see online stores promoting special offers just for this occasion. These include an iPhone 6 for just €100, for example. In this case, just keep the old refrain about “there being no such thing as a free lunch” in mind.

WhatsApp Emoticons

We know that nearly everyone is dying to get new emoticons for WhatsApp and cybercriminals use Valentine’s Day to take advantage of this. You might see them trying to offer special, romantic themed emoticons but don’t download them – all you’ll get is malware! Remember to only download from official stores.

Gifts and SPAM for Valentine’s Day

Even though you already know what you’re buying for your partner, you’ll surely receive lots of emails with wonderful suggestions. In most cases it’ll just be spam, but be careful if they come with an attachment as it could contain malware. Delete them and you won’t need to worry about any unwanted gifts!

san valentin spam

Romantic cards filled with malware

It’s pretty likely that you’ll receive an email with a supposed Valentine’s Day greeting. This digital card needs to be downloaded to be viewed… and we’re sure that you won’t be surprised to learn that this is just another way of infecting your computer with malware. So remember, don’t click on links that come from unknown sources.

Phishing for your passwords

Another of the attacks that could be seen over the next few days are the ones that try to get your login details for Facebook and Twitter. These are done by phishing attacks and use the romantic holiday as an excuse to launch attacks. Our advice is to never, ever give out your login details over the Internet.