CBS Mornings’ (2021) “Cybercrime spikes as online holiday shopping picks up” elaborates that online shopping activities surged during the pandemic, and cybercriminals were aware of it. As stipulated in the video, the Federal Trade Commission recognized that scams on social media tripped during the outbreak, and most people were victims of the crimes. For instance, one consumer bought a riding dinosaur, which turned out to be a fake toy, even though it appeared like the original ones on the scammer’s site. Besides, many other online buyers were scammed, especially during the Black Friday mega sales, depicting spiked cybercrimes during online holiday shopping pickups.
The happenings in the video relate to the routine activity theory because it stipulates that crime revolves around three things. The theory expounds tat crimes happens because of a “potential offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian” (Andresen & Ha, 2018). According to the theory, crime trends escalate based on suitable targets, especially due to changes in people’s routine activities and the presence of more people to target. Though not present for all individuals and communities, these changes, significantly impact people at societal levels. As such, the theory relates to the phenomenon depicted in the video because it posits that crime occurs when the availability of suitable targets and no guardianship motivated criminals to engage in crime. During the festivities, most people rushed to shop online, and cybercriminals were motivated to exploit their period with minimal resistance or oversight. Thus, most online shoppers were unaware that scammers were readily available to trick them into purchasing items that did not meet the stipulated requirements because with increased shopping activities, there were minimal cyber security measures to protect or enlighten buyers.

References
Andresen, M. A., & Ha, O. K. (2018). Routine activity theory. In The Routledge companion to criminological theory and concepts (pp. 536-539). Routledge.
CBS Mornings. (2021). Cybercrime spikes as online holiday shopping picks up [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOGUzKJ7Hog