Everyone who has e-mail has received suspicious e-mails at least once, containing obscure links, requests for information and strange attachments. Often these emails are supposedly from governmental agencies, partners, major online stores and social networks. By creating emails that look as much like the original appeals as possible, scammers can pursue goals: stealing your personal data, infecting your device with a virus, or stealing your bank credentials.
The experts at Roskatchestvo’s Center for Digital Expertise explain how to recognize such an e-mail and react appropriately, so as not to lose money and confidential information.
“In order to get the recipient to open the email or unzip the archive, cybercriminals use social engineering techniques. As a rule, they use anchor words, at the sight of which we automatically perform the “open” action. These are words like “documents”, “order”, “order” or “password”, as well as manipulation of time: urgent, 2 hours left, etc. That is why representatives of all professions which are connected with money and documents are in the risk group”, – said Ilya Loevskiy, Deputy Head of Roskatchestvo.
In this connection, we remind you that your work email should be specified with special care. For low value communications, get a spam email that you are not afraid to give to online stores, brands, and miscellaneous sites.
It is worth noting that more than half of all malware mailings in the first half of 2019 came from encryption viruses, with the most popular tool for cybercriminals being the Troldesh encryptor. This is reported1 by CERT Group-IB Cyber Security Incident Response Center. To bypass antivirus systems, hackers send malicious links after hours with delayed activation, more than 80% of all malicious files were delivered in zip and rar archives for disguise. According to experts, email is still the main delivery method for malware – encryption ransomware, banking Trojans, backdoors.
“The trend has been to disguise malware in the email. Attackers are increasingly using archived malicious attachments to bypass corporate security measures. During the first 6 months of 2019, more than 80% of all malicious objects were delivered in archives, mostly using zip formats 32% and rar 25% . The password itself for the decryption of the content was specified by criminals in the letter with a malicious attachment, in the subject of the letter or in the name of the archive, or in the course of further correspondence with the victim,” Alexander Kalinin, head of CERT-GIB Incident Response Centre explains.
Experts from the Roskatchestvo Digital Expertise Center, together with cybersecurity experts from Group-IB, prepared a 10-step algorithm that aims to identify fraudulent emails.
1. Check the sender’s address
Fraudsters often make the address look as much like the company or organization they pretend to be. Compare this address with other emails from the original sender – if it is an online store,
This sender is probably listed on the web site or you might have emails from him/her. Just hover your cursor over the sender’s name to see the address.
2. Note the welcome message
An impersonal “hello” or “hello” is yet another odds that this email was sent to you by scammers. Of course, many of them have now reached the level of professionalism where an email looks official and includes your name, but this principle still works in some cases.
3. Check contact information and reconcile dates
At the bottom of the email, be sure to include information on how to contact the addressee. Email, address, phone number, social media – all must be in the letter from the original sender. Just don’t click on the links right away – hover over them and check the web address in the lower left corner of your browser that the link leads to. It may be that when you click on the button it will start downloading a virus on your device, or you will be redirected to a fraudulent site.
Scammers often forget to check dates. Do it for them! If, for example, the contest in question is due to end in 2017 when it’s 2020, you probably got an inattentive scammer who put an outdated template into the body of the email.
4. Check the brand
Scammers often mislead the user with emails pretending to be from a big brand, company, agency or retailer. To avoid falling for this bait, you need to carefully check the quality and originality of company logos. Is the logo the same as the one on the company, online store, or government website? Whether it matches the last authentic email you received from them? If the answer is no – be suspicious!
5. Check the authenticity of the website
If you have already clicked on the website to which the email leads, check its authenticity. If it’s a big brand or company, just open a new tab and do a quick search for them in your browser. Click on their website, then compare URLs. Whether they are the same, similar or completely different? This will give you an indication if the website you are visiting is genuine or a phishing site.
Attackers are increasingly using links in emails that lead to malicious downloads instead of the already traditional attachments. Avoid the temptation to quickly click a link from an email, even if you are asked to do so to access important information or a message in your account. Instead, open your browser and log into your account through the official website. Check to see if this message really exists? If it does not, the email you received was most likely sent by a scammer.
6. Ignore all requests for personal and especially bank details
If an email asks you to update or re-enter your personal information or bank details, it is most likely a scammer. Remember: your card number, pin number or card security code, your mother’s maiden name, and other questions are personal information you shouldn’t share. Large companies and organizations value their reputation and will not collect personal information via email.
7. Check your email for literacy and style
Errors in the text of an email signal that its creator did not bother to check spelling. An organization with a reputation can not afford this. Different font styles and sizes, logos that do not match, poor quality images – all these things indicate that the email is fake and made hastily.
8. Pay attention to emails that are too formal
Scammers often inflate the bubble of significance to blur your eyes. It’s unlikely that the original big online store or agency will describe in emails how important and official they are. Fraudulent emails may also contain information such as account numbers and identifiers so that you can verify the authenticity of the email.
9. They are in a hurry – close the letter
Scammers will try to pressure you with quick-burning offers and exclusive deals. Take time to verify the authenticity of the email and its contents, during this time the offer will not get away from you. Better to miss out on a genuine offer than risk your payment and other personal information.
10. The most important weapon is the connection to the real company
If you want to quickly verify the originality of the email you received, contact the sender yourself. Of course you should not call the number in the email, but the phone number on the original site. Doing this will relieve you of any doubt.
Remember that nothing on the Internet is completely safe.
How can we protect ourselves from falling victim to e-mail fraud?