Cyber thieves busy during holiday season

With holiday shopping in full swing, everyone is out looking for a steal. And that includes criminals.

Internet users will get the usual barrage of offers that are too good to be true. Some will be deals, but others will be duds in the form of cyber criminals.

These bad guys will multiply their efforts this year to get shoppers to give out personal information, according to experts at Trend Micro, an Internet security firm. The struggling economy is giving crooks more incentive for ripping people off and stealing their identity online.

Just how prevalent is online crime? Try $3 billion taken by scammers last year, Trend Micro reports.

This time of year, shoppers are more aggressive to sign up for a bargain — and the crooks know this, experts say.