Phishing Messages and Social Scams Flood Users Ahead of Christmas

Check Point reports a sharp rise in AI-powered Christmas-themed scams, detecting roughly 33,500 unique phishing emails and over 10,000 seasonal social media ads within two weeks and a 100% increase in fake delivery scams year-over-year. Threat actors are using AI to craft flawless local-language phishing, build convincing fake e-commerce sites with working checkouts and chatbots, generate deepfake audio for vishing, and produce smishing that mimics logistics alerts; the advisory lists red flags (spoofed URLs, unusual payment requests, generic contacts, new/inactive accounts, emotional triggers) and urges users to avoid unsolicited links, verify notifications, and never share personal or financial information unless they initiated contact.