American Retailers Leave Consumers Exposed to Email Fraud Amid Holiday Shopping Season

Proofpoint reports that among the top 50 U.S. retailers, 60% enforce DMARC “reject” while 40% are not actively blocking spoofed emails; 10% have no DMARC, 18% use monitor, and 12% use quarantine. With holiday email volumes rising, the release warns of heightened phishing risks, references Google’s reported reduction in unauthenticated messages following new authentication rules, and provides consumer guidance on strong passwords, avoiding imitation sites, staying alert to phishing/smishing, not clicking unsolicited links, and verifying apps and websites before use.