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Dark web monitoring is absolutely essential for fighting holiday fraud, as cyber attackers escalate their efforts during the busiest shopping season of the year. Criminals use the dark web to distribute stolen data, orchestrate scams, and launch sophisticated attacks that target both businesses and consumers.
The Holiday Fraud Surge
The holiday shopping season is prime time for scammers, with statistics showing a sharp increase year after year. In 2023, U.S. consumers lost over $10 billion to online scams, and that’s an increase of $1 billion from the previous year. Attackers target shoppers with a variety of tactics, most notably:
How the Dark Web Powers Fraud
The dark web has evolved into a bustling marketplace and communication hub for fraudsters, particularly during peak holiday shopping periods. Threat intelligence platforms have revealed over 311 million stolen retail account credentials advertised on dark web forums this year alone, with retail brands representing the majority of those compromised accounts. This underlines the persistent and growing vulnerability for shoppers and organizations as consumer spending surges.
Cybercriminals operating on these underground sites engage in a variety of illicit activities. There is an active exchange of hacked credit card details and account login credentials, making it exceptionally easy for scammers to access victim funds or personal information. Many forums also share guides and software specifically designed for automating online fraud, including gift card theft and refund abuse schemes. This technological sophistication allows attackers to target thousands of accounts at once, especially as holiday sales attract more online shoppers.
Furthermore, access to compromised business systems is regularly sold on the dark web, providing fraudsters with the means to launch scams at scale. In the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, criminal marketplaces see a sharp increase in activity, with automated bots and fake account generation tools surging. Retailers then face not only a flood of fraudulent transactions but also escalating damage to their reputations and customer trust, again making proactive dark web monitoring essential for timely threat detection and response.
With dark web monitoring, you can detect things like stolen account credentials before they can be used for fraudulent purposes. Through monitoring ,you can also identify new phishing sites and scam domains targeting your brand and customers, plus so much more.
Impacts and Best Practices
Holiday fraud leaves lasting damage, both financially and emotionally, for victims, be they the consumer or the brand. More than half of victims report feelings of frustration and anger after falling prey to scams. Despite all of the stats we’ve shared above, there are some mitigating agents, and it starts with getting a workflow in place that enables smart dark web monitoring for consumer-related fraud.
Best Practices for Employing Dark Web Monitoring to Catch Holiday Fraud
Deploy Enterprise-Grade Dark Web Monitoring Tools
Select platforms that offer automated threat detection, real-time alerts, and integration with existing security infrastructure like SIEM systems. Tools should scan underground marketplaces, forums, and encrypted channels for compromised credentials, brand mentions, and payment data.
Integrate Dark Web Intelligence with Your SIEM System
Connect dark web monitoring feeds directly into Security Information and Event Management platforms to correlate dark web alerts with login attempts, network activity, and other security events. This provides a holistic view of your threat landscape and enables faster incident response.
Set Up Automated Real-Time Alerting
Configure immediate notifications via email or SMS when your organization's credentials, brand names, or sensitive data appear on dark web marketplaces. Speed is critical as most ransomware attacks using stolen credentials occur within two days of those credentials being posted.
Implement Continuous Credential Monitoring
Scan for exposed employee and customer credentials continuously, not just during security audits. Check new account registrations against dark web exposure databases to identify accounts created with stolen information or by fraudsters using compromised data.
Train Your Security Team on Dark Web Intelligence
Provide comprehensive training on interpreting dark web data, recognizing threat patterns, and implementing countermeasures. Teams should understand the structure of underground forums, types of threats, and how to integrate intelligence with incident response workflows.
Establish a Pre-Holiday Threat Intelligence Baseline
Begin monitoring at least 30-60 days before peak shopping periods. Cybercriminals ramp up activity in the ten days leading to Black Friday.
Create Cross-Functional Response Playbooks
Develop clear incident response procedures that outline actions to be taken when threats are detected, such as credential resets, account freezes, takedown requests for phishing domains, and coordination with law enforcement.
The Wrap Up
IBM's 2025 breach report revealed that the average data breach now costs organizations $4.4 million, with expenses significantly higher when attackers first discover the breach. By contrast, organizations that detect threats early through proactive dark web monitoring reduce dwell time, contain impact faster, and minimize reputational damage. The dark web often serves as the first marketplace where stolen credentials and data appear, sometimes within minutes of a compromise, making early detection the difference between preventing a breach and managing a crisis. During the holiday season, when transaction volumes spike and attackers intensify their efforts, the ROI of continuous monitoring becomes even more compelling.