Key Takeaways:

• Valentine’s Day is a prime time for cybercriminals, with phishing scams disguised as giveaways, rewards, and romantic promotions.
• Exclusive Guardz Research Findings: The Guardz platform detected, quarantined, and prevented phishing scams impersonating Costco, Walmart, Rituals, and many more, which attempted to lure recipients into malicious links.
• Small businesses are at high risk, as employees may unknowingly click on fraudulent links, compromising sensitive data.
• MSPs play a critical role in protecting SMBs by protecting identities, emails, devices, and data.
  Guardz empowers MSPs with real-time unified detection & response, helping them defend their clients against evolving cyber threats.

Cybercriminals Love Valentine’s Day: Exclusive Guardz Findings

Holidays create the perfect cover for cybercriminals, and Valentine’s Day is no exception. In the weeks leading up to the holiday, cyber scammers intensify their attacks, leveraging themes of love, urgency, and exclusive offers to deceive victims.

While people are celebrating love, cybercriminals are crafting deceptive Valentine’s Day scams to steal credentials, personal information, and financial data. Holidays create a sense of urgency, making users more susceptible to clicking on fraudulent links disguised as “exclusive offers” and “limited-time rewards.”

This year, the Guardz platform detected and quarantined multiple phishing campaigns targeting small businesses—all disguised as Valentine’s Day promotions from well-known brands.

The Guardz Research Unit has uncovered a wave of phishing emails impersonating major brands in the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. Here’s what we found:

1. Fake “Costco Valentine Basket” Email (Phishing Scam)

Subject: “Last Chance to Win a Costco Valentine Basket!”
Sender: “Costco Wholesale” (spoofed email address)

This email falsely claims to be from Costco, urging recipients to claim a Valentine’s Day gift basket before it’s “too late.” Clicking the link leads to a fraudulent website designed to steal login credentials and payment information.

Guardz Research Findings: After analyzing the URL, the Guardz Research Unit confirmed that the link leads to a malicious phishing site—not an official Costco promotion.

Guardz Platform Action: This attack was automatically detected, quarantined, and blocked before it could reach recipients’ inboxes, preventing small businesses from falling victim.

2. Fake “Walmart Valentine Rewards” Email 

Subject: “You’ve Won a Walmart Valentine Basket!”
Sender: “Walmart Valentine Rewards” (spoofed email address)

This phishing attempt exploits Walmart’s brand by luring recipients into clicking a fake link to claim a non-existent reward. Employees in small businesses may assume this is a corporate giveaway or customer reward program and unknowingly compromise company credentials.

Guardz Research Findings: The Guardz Research Unit confirmed that this email was not sent by Walmart, and the fraudulent link redirects to a credential-harvesting site.

Guardz Platform Action: The Guardz platform identified the fraudulent sender, analyzed the link, and quarantined the email, ensuring that no end users were exposed to the scam.

3. Fake “Rituals Valentine Package” Email 

Subject: “Congratulations! Your Rituals Valentine Package Is Here!”
Sender: “Rituals” (spoofed email address)

This email pretends to be from Rituals, announcing a Valentine’s gift for the recipient and urging them to click a link to “claim” their prize.

Guardz Research Findings: The Guardz Research Unit determined that the link leads to a malicious site designed to steal credentials.

Important Note: Guardz maintains strict confidentiality for all detected threats, ensuring no customer details are published or shared.

How MSPs Can Protect Small Businesses from Valentine’s Day Cyber Threats

1. AI-Powered Email Security: Preventing Threats Before They Reach Users

Most phishing emails bypass traditional spam filters, relying on brand impersonation and psychological manipulation. MSPs must deploy advanced AI-driven email security to:
– Detect and block phishing attempts before they reach inboxes.
– Analyze and quarantine suspicious emails in real-time to prevent credential theft.
– Automatically prevent malicious links from being accessed.

Guardz provides MSPs with AI-powered email security, allowing them to automatically stop phishing campaigns before they impact businesses.

Guardz helps MSPs prevent account compromise by securing email, detecting phishing attempts, and monitoring for credential leaks—before they turn into full-blown breaches.

2. Phishing Simulations: Strengthening Employee Awareness

Even with advanced security, human error remains the top cybersecurity risk. The best way to ensure employees recognize phishing threats? Simulated phishing tests.

Guardz provides MSPs with automated phishing simulations, helping SMB employees:
– Recognize phishing attempts in real time.
– Practice identifying fraudulent emails safely.
– Improve their cybersecurity habits through ongoing training.

With real-time reporting, MSPs can track employee performance, identify vulnerabilities, and reinforce training where needed.

3. Cyber Awareness Training: Reducing Human Error Risks

Cybercriminals rely on untrained employees clicking malicious links. Ongoing cybersecurity training is the key to prevention.

Guardz Cyber Awareness Training Helps MSPs:
✔ Deliver automated, ongoing security training for SMB employees.
✔ Test employees with real-world cyber threats to improve response rates.
✔ Monitor training effectiveness to ensure businesses stay secure.

How Guardz Helps MSPs to Secure Small Businesses

At Guardz, we provide MSPs with a comprehensive cybersecurity platform to detect and prevent threats before they reach SMB clients. Recently, We’ve launched our “Ultimate Plan”– AI-Powered Unified Detection & Response across identities, endpoints, email, cloud, and data, featuring embedded SentinelOne EDR –  Guardz ensures MSPs can proactively defend small businesses from evolving cyber threats.

Why MSPs Choose Guardz:

AI-Powered Threat Detection – Stops phishing and email-based attacks before they impact businesses.
Automated Phishing Simulations & Cyber Awareness Training – Prepares employees to recognize and avoid cyber threats.
Dark Web Monitoring & Compliance Tools – Helps MSPs stay ahead of evolving threats.

Final Thoughts: Cybersecurity Must Be a Priority—Not a Valentine’s Afterthought

Cybercriminals exploit human emotion and trust, and Valentine’s Day scams are no exception. This year, phishing campaigns are more sophisticated than ever, using brand impersonation and fake rewards to trick victims into handing over sensitive information.

For MSPs, proactive cybersecurity is the only way to keep small businesses safe. That means:
✔ Blocking phishing attempts before they reach inboxes
✔ Training employees to recognize scams through phishing simulations
✔ Using real-time threat intelligence to stay ahead of cybercriminals

By partnering with Guardz, MSPs can deliver enterprise-grade security to small businesses without complexity or high costs.

Want to protect your SMB clients from phishing threats? Check out Guardz’s Ultimate Cybersecurity Plan for MSPs today!