Email Fraud: The booming business with business contacts is not just in, but expanding. ESET explains the current meshes and gives tips on protection.
Alleged offers on participant lists from trade fairs that did not take place due to the corona pandemic? Scammers have been sending out such emails in abundance over the past few months. In general, such fake offers with supposed "business leads" are nothing new. During the Corona crisis, cyber fraudsters expanded their business area and are currently offering alleged contact lists from canceled trade fairs and congresses. Millions of these "valuable" offers end up as spam emails in the mailboxes of marketing and sales departments. But what is the aim of the fraudsters? How do you get contact details for potential addressees? ESET security expert Righard Zwienenberg gets to the bottom of these questions in a new WeliveSecurity article and shows the current scams of fraudsters. He explains how much information people reveal with their e-mail accounts and what effects a careless click can already have.
Tips to avoid nasty scam emails
- Don't send a read receipt: When users receive an email requesting a read receipt, always press “No”. Our tip: For example, Outlook offers the option of generally deactivating such read receipts under Options.
- Do not react to such e-mails: Often with such e-mails there is an option at the end to object to further contact or to unsubscribe from a list. Users should not react here under any circumstances. The senders only receive feedback that the account is being actively used and will send even more emails.
- Write automatic replies wisely: Out of office messages are essential in the business world. However, many users tend to provide detailed information such as contact details. This can include the mobile phone number, the job title or the addresses of colleagues. Fraudsters create complete profiles and can resell them or start even more targeted contact attempts.
Read more about this in the blog article on WeLiveSecurity on ESET.com
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