The reality: Bargains bring risk

Attackers increasingly time phishing, cloned sites, and other social-engineering campaigns to coincide with high-volume shopping periods; recent UK incidents (Marks & Spencer, Co‑op, Harrods) attributed to Scattered Spider disrupted payments and orders and caused large losses. The advisory urges consumers and retailers to adopt MFA, unique passwords, virtual/disposable cards, vigilant URL and payment checks, phishing reporting and staff protections to reduce fraud and operational impact.