Ever since theoutbreak of COVID-19,thenumber ofcyber scamshave alarmingly increased as scammers try to prey on a fearfulglobal community.Over the last few weeks,especially,people around the world have raised concerns about receiving various forms of emailphishing, such as false alerts, scam threads, and misleading emails.
We at ²վ Campaigns are concerned about the privacy and safety of our customersandyour personal information, so this is a brief articleon how you can avoidfalling victim to phishing.
Why would someone send phishing emails now?
Cyber criminals are conveniently usingthe pandemic as a means to get access to people’s sensitive data through emails delivered to their computer systems and phones. These fraudulent emails capitalize on the fear of the recipients and their concerns about their protection against the virus, both physically and economically.
Additionally, there’s also been a sharp rise in the number of website (domain) registrations andSSLcertificates that carry the name “COVID,” “Corona,” or “COVID-19.”
Phishing is primarily done for the hacker to locate and control your details like passwords, credentials, credit card information,and more. It couldarrive asa malicious link click, malware download, or information feed of any kind through emails. As recipients aremore likely to cede to their fearsand perform any actionstated in the emails to safeguard their health and safety, these cyber criminals have been thriving steadily for the last few weeks.
What could be treated as a phishing email?
Now that we know the intention behind these hackers, the next focus is to identify what could be potentially classified as phishing emails. At times like this,it’s likely that recipients will receive empathetic emails from brands that show care and support. Butit’s also important toavoid certain emails that can unknowingly bring harm to you.
Here are some common email types that have been received by users worldwide andtreated as phishing:
Impersonating government or international bodies
These emails mention the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),and so on, in the email content, subject line, or the sender address, while includingmalicious URLs that take you to random websites or attachments that can spoil your system when downloaded.
Eg. WHO does not send email from addresses ending in ‘@who.com’ , ‘@who.org’ or ‘@who-safety.org’.
Source – Proofpoint
Donations, financial or relief aids, and charitable trusts
Most scammers send these emails in order to collect money from you either throughbank transactions or bitcoins. Additionally, they can also hack your banking accounts, retrieve personal data, and cause problems with future transactions. Some emailseven offer fake taxrefund eligibility for the donation that you may provide.
Source – Mimecast
Medicinal cures, face masks, and vaccines
Since many people are captured by the fear of the disease,scammerswillprey upon this fear and project false goodwill in the form of health advice oraremedy to the disease through medicines and vaccines. Emails may specify purchasing these vaccines, home remedial cures, or even face masks—a way for the hackers to get your data and cheat you with wrong products or leave you empty-handed.
Phishing email promising a vaccine for COVID-19. (Source – Forbes)
Travel, entertainment, and logistics
Withtransportation, manufacturing, and many other industries stalled, scammers are sending emails with lucrative offers and coupons to redeem for entertainment or travel facilities—for example,asubscription to movie-hosting services orafalse renewal for a travel ticket that was already canceled.
A sample WhatsApp message people were asked to send, after fillingup a survey in the fake email sent regarding Netflix’s free subscription for the lockdown period. (Source – Economic Times)
Steps to avoid the risk of phishing and scams
While you can’t completely stopcyber attackers from sendingphishing emails, there are some precautionary stepsyou can takebefore you respond to an email. Here’s a quickfive-point checklist:
1.Verifythesender’s email address and name before you open and process the email. Additionally, look out for the brand/company logo to ensure credibility.
2.Don’t download the attachments before you read the email content fully. Also, in any case of suspect or misleading content, avoid anykind of email downloads.
3.Before clicking on the inline URLs or call-to-action buttons,hover your cursor over the link to see where it leads. There are manyfake domains that may be interlinked but kept discreetwith convincing inlineURLtext (for example, a link that reads “WHO” taking you to the scam website). So, copy and paste the URL embedded in the text instead of clicking.
4.Ensure the email content doesn’t havemanyspelling errors, grammatical mistakes, or faulty layouts.
5. Don’t rush to provide your personal information when asked in any manner inside the email—form, survey, or fields. Think twice and validate your call before feeding your details for anything, from submission to transaction.
Legitimate sources of COVID-19 information
Instead of giving in to scam emails, follow some authentic and credible sources of information like the and. You can also keep tabs on your preferred online news platforms, official/government-run news sources (online and offline), social channels, or e-magazines, to stay up to date.
You can also check thelive dashboard from ²վ,whichreflectsCOVID-19 statistics from countries across the world.
We hope you and your family stay safe, both from the virus as well as the cyber criminals and their email phishing activities.
Take care, and feel free to get in touch with us atsupport@zohocampaigns.com for any assistance.
~ ²վ Campaigns Team
Comments