Kaspersky reports that in 2025, cybercriminals continued to use seasonal shopping periods to distribute phishing pages and fraudulent promotions aimed at collecting personal and payment information. Gaming platforms also remained a prominent target throughout the year, a press release said.
Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) reports that from January through October 2025 it blocked 6,394,854 phishing attempts impersonating online stores, banks and payment systems, with 48.2% targeting online shoppers. Over the same period, the company identified more than 20 million attempted attacks on gaming platforms, including 18.56 million abusing Discord. Black Friday-related spam remained a major driver: in the first two weeks of November, Kaspersky detected 146,535 spam emails mentioning seasonal sales, including 2,572 tied to Single’s Day. Many reused templates from previous years and impersonated Amazon, Walmart and Alibaba. Phishing abusing entertainment platforms also surged, with 801,148 Netflix-themed and 576,873 Spotify-related attempts recorded in 2025.
Threats extended beyond e-commerce to gaming systems such as Steam, PlayStation and Xbox, with 2,054,336 phishing attempts detected. Malware disguised as gaming software also rose significantly to 20,188,897 attempted infections, with Discord representing 18,556,566 detections, more than 14 times higher than in 2024.
“This year’s data shows that attackers increasingly operate across the full digital ecosystem,” said Olga Altukhova, Senior Web Content Analyst at Kaspersky. “They follow user activity across shopping platforms, gaming services, streaming apps, and communication tools, adapting their methods to blend into familiar environments. For consumers, this makes consistent vigilance and basic security hygiene essential, especially during periods of heightened online activity.”
For more details see the article on Securelist.com.
