Slide Show: Top 10 Holiday Phishing Scams

Not everyone is full of cheer and goodwill this holiday season. In fact, many cybercriminals are planning on taking advantage of people's high spirits to trick them into divulging information, clicking bad links, and opening malicious attachments. All it takes is the perfect combination of persistence and smart social engineering:

Now's the time of year to participate in office pools on holiday bowl games--and the bad guys are hoping to jump in on the action. Watch out for phishing scams trying to play to your urge to watch games online.

"The spam messages claim to offer ways to watch live streaming video of American football games, which have been posted by bogus or compromised Facebook accounts," says Beth Jones, senior threat researcher for Sophos Labs U.S. "Clicking on the links will take you to a Web gage which asks you to hand over your email address, claiming that you will be sent a program that will allow you to watch live streaming video of football games."