February, with its gender holidays, has become a peak month for phishing in Russia

During gender holidays, scammers create almost twice as many phishing resources as the average year. This level of activity turned out to be even higher than the peak recorded during the New Year period, according to MegaFon analytics.

The operator’s specialists analyzed data on identified phishing sites for 2025 and early 2026. As follows from the analytics, during the period of gender holidays the number of phishing increases by 1.8 times compared to the average for the year and even exceeds the December figures. At the same time, February of last year, which is inferior to other months in duration, became the absolute leader in the number of threats.

Most often, phishing imitates social networks and instant messengers – more than 40% of the total number of identified resources. With the help of such fakes, attackers try to gain access to users’ personal accounts in order to continue scamming the victim’s contact list.

Another 27% copy the interfaces of financial and investment services, and about 13% spread fake news and promises of compensation. Fake marketplaces usually take fourth place, but their share briefly increases during the holidays.

Internet scammers deliberately rely on “themed” dates and take advantage of the emotional background of the holidays: they hold fake “promotions” under the guise of stores and brands, give away “prizes” and pretend to be a “delivery service.”

“The risk of falling for scams is increasing because fakes are becoming more and more high-quality, and users are in a hurry not checking suspicious links and messages. But MegaFon subscribers have protection: the operator warns about going to a potentially dangerous site. The main thing is not to neglect these notifications,” said Sergei Khrenov, director of the department for preventing fraud and loss of income.

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