New Scamming Approach to Grow Exponentially during Holidays

New research from fraud experts, Arkose Labs, has revealed that there were over two billion Credential Stuffing attacks during 2021.The number grew exponentially during the period from October 2020 to September 2021. The spike in this type of online fraud has seen an enormous 98% increase from the previous year and is expected to peak during the Christmas shopping months.

During the first half of 2021, data from the Arkose Labs Network revealed that Credential Stuffing accounted for 5% of all traffic online. Credential Stuffing is the latest cyber-attack approach used by online fraudsters, used to gain unauthorized access to consumers’ financial and personal accounts.

Cybercriminals take over real user accounts, which they then monetize in several ways. These include draining compromised accounts of funds, stealing, and reselling personal data, selling lists of a known verified username and password combinations and using the compromised accounts to launder money gained from other illegal enterprises. The attacks often take advantage of people reusing the same username/password combination across multiple sites.

Credential Stuffing has been identified as a growing trend over the last few years by the anti-fraud community. However, the spike in online activity due to the pandemic and growth in online shopping has seen it surge in recent months.