Spam and phishing email
Phishing and spam emails have been on the rise. Malicious users appear to be using registration, subscription and feedback forms on websites to insert spam or phishing links in confirmation emails from respectable companies highly regarded.
Phishing emails are becoming more frequent and they are often sent from legitimate company websites.
New methods are emerging all the time to allow malicious users to deliver spam and phishing email. One such method is to bypass existing content filters. “Ideally, they try to make the emails appear to come from a legitimate source with a good reputation so that users cannot ignore the spam email. This also creates a challenge for companies, as this unwanted spam or even malicious content, seemingly sent on their behalf, could compromise the trust of their customers or even lead to personal data leaks,” Kaspersky said.
Means of intrusion explained
Here, the company explains that the method is quite simple and effective. Nowadays, companies have the goal of improving services, retaining customers, and maintaining a high level of reputation. To do so, they need to get as much feedback from customers as possible. Companies ask to get feedback from customers through personal accounts, newsletters and phone calls. The “attackers” exploit precisely these mechanisms.
All three mechanisms require that you provide your name and email so that you can receive a confirmation and feedback. According to Kaspersky researchers, fraudsters often add spam and phishing content to this email. They add the victim’s email to the registration or subscription form and type their message instead of the name. Once the text is sent to your address and modified as described above, you’ll get an email with a link at the start of it instead of the person’s name.
“Most of these modified letters link to online surveys designed to obtain personal data from visitors. Alerts from a trusted source usually easily pass through content filters as they are official messages from a reputable company. This is why this new method of unsolicited, but seemingly innocent, spam emails is so effective and alarming,” the company points out.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
