Bank spam: increase in volume and sophistication. According to Bitdefender, spammers perfectly mimic industry jargon and layouts. Companies are also increasingly being targeted.
E-mail-based attacks that imitate the customer communication of well-known financial institutions and online payment services have increased again in the last few months. And the spammers are getting better at making their attacks appear like real banking services.
Detailed imitations
Many of the fraudulent e-mails imitate legitimate correspondence, as sent by banks, in great detail. In banking spam, they use real logos, specific layouts, and even the correct terminology. This makes it difficult for recipients to notice the fraud - especially if they call up the message on their smartphone or tablet. Most spam sends a sense of urgency, prompting users to quickly provide either personal or financial information, download a document or attachment, or click links to resolve a security issue.
Bank spam: pandemic is being exploited
In their attacks, cyber criminals continue to use and benefit from the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The upward trend in online shopping, digital transactions and managing personal finances online has opened up new opportunities for them that they are increasingly taking advantage of. The second half of 2020 is marked by a comprehensive series of phishing campaigns relating to imitation online banking services. This is shown by an evaluation of the telemetry of Bitdefender's Antispam Lab. Here are some examples of global analysis:
- September 20, 2020 - 38,08 percent of all inbound emails related to banking and financial services were marked as spam.
- October 25, 2020 - Nearly six in ten emails (58,84 percent) related to banking were fraudulent.
- November 29, 2020 - 30,7 percent of all emails received stated that they came from well-known financial institutions.
On the Bitdefender Hot For Security Blog, the team has put together some examples of the biggest malspam campaigns around supposed financial services from different countries in recent months.
More on this at Bitdefender.com
About Bitdefender Bitdefender is a leading global provider of cybersecurity solutions and antivirus software, protecting over 500 million systems in more than 150 countries. Since it was founded in 2001, the company's innovations have consistently ensured excellent security products and intelligent protection for devices, networks and cloud services for private customers and companies. As the supplier of choice, Bitdefender technology is found in 38 percent of security solutions deployed around the world and is trusted and recognized by industry experts, manufacturers and customers alike. www.bitdefender.de