Summer Scam Surge: How Cybercriminals Exploit Vacation Season

As summer travel reaches its peak, cybersecurity agencies across Europe are reporting a disturbing surge in financially motivated social engineering attacks. The attacks follow two distinct but equally dangerous patterns: travel-related phishing and sophisticated banking trojans.

Travel Scams: The Digital Vacation Trap
Cybercriminals are exploiting the increased online activity of vacationers through:

• Fake hotel/tour operator websites with too-good-to-be-true deals
• Compromised booking portals injecting malicious JavaScript
• SMS phishing (smishing) about fake flight cancellations
• Fraudulent 'emergency assistance' requests from spoofed family members

Banking Threats: The Summer Financial Harvest
Parallel to travel scams, security researchers have identified targeted campaigns against customers of major European banks. The attacks feature:

• Advanced vishing (voice phishing) calls mimicking bank security departments
• Deepfake audio in some high-value cases
• Malware-laden PDFs disguised as summer promotion terms
• Fake security alerts about 'suspicious vacation transactions'

Technical Analysis:
The new banking trojans exhibit concerning capabilities:

• Screen overlay attacks specifically designed for mobile banking apps
• Dynamic credential harvesting that adapts to different banking UIs
• Geolocation-aware payloads that activate only when victims are abroad

Protection Measures:
For travelers:

• Verify all travel-related communications through official channels
• Use virtual cards for online bookings
• Avoid public WiFi for financial transactions

For enterprises:

• Implement client-side protection against formjacking
• Enhance fraud detection for location-based anomalies
• Conduct employee awareness training focusing on travel scenarios