Have you received an email saying that “your password is set to expire today”? Look out – it may be a new phishing scam.
MailGuard are now blocking the scam, which lands in inboxes with the subject line “It-Servicedesk#”. The sender name shows “Nyirfás Fanni” and the sender address, which appears to match, is “nyirfas.fanni(at)alpha-vet(dot)hu” and is linked to a Hungarian domain.The email itself is pretty nondescript, with no formatting or branding. It addresses the recipient as “user”, and continues on to warn that their password is set to expire unless they click hyperlinked text which says “Click Here To Keep Current Password”. It ends with threatening that ignoring the email will lead to the email account being locked and signs off with “Helpdesk”, although it does not specify a company.
Here's what the email looks like:
Clicking the linked text in the email directs the recipient to a phishing site which has been designed to look similar to the Outlook Web App login page. The major tell that this is a phishing page is the URL.
The user is directed to enter their email address and password in order to ‘sign in’.
If the user clicks the sign in button, they’re taken to a simple page which only says, ‘Thank you’. By this point, the email address and password have been harvested by the cybercriminal.
As one of the most popular email providers globally, the Microsoft Outlook login page is frequently replicated in phishing attacks. Always make sure to check the URL of the page before signing in to prevent your credentials being stolen.
MailGuard advises all recipients of this email to delete it immediately without clicking on any links. Providing your personal details can result in your sensitive information being used for criminal activity and may have a severe negative impact on your business and its’ financial well-being.
MailGuard urges users not to click links or open attachments within emails that:
- Are not addressed to you by name.
- Appear to be from a legitimate company but use poor English or omits personal details that a legitimate sender would include.
- Are from businesses that you were not expecting to hear from, and/or
- Take you to a landing page or website that is not the legitimate URL of the company the email is purporting to be sent from.
Many businesses turn to MailGuard after an incident or a near miss, often as a result of an email similar to the one shown above. If unwanted emails are a problem for your business, don’t wait until it’s too late.
Reach out to our team for a confidential discussion by emailing expert@mailguard.com.au or calling 1300 30 44 30.
One email is all that it takes
All that it takes to devastate your business is a cleverly worded email message that can steal sensitive user credentials or disrupt your business operations. If scammers can trick one person in your company into clicking on a malicious link or attachment, they can gain access to your data or inflict damage on your business.
For a few dollars per staff member per month, you can protect your business with MailGuard's predictive and advanced email security. Talk to a solution consultant at MailGuard today about securing your company's inboxes.
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