No business wants to see it's web domain expire, which is precisely what scammers are preying upon in the latest scam being intercepted by the MailGuard team. The phishing campaign impersonates Synergy Wholesale, and carries a renew-now lure before funnelling victims to a fake payment site that captures credit card details and a 3-D Secure SMS code.
What we’re seeing
The email From/Sender name shown in your team's inbox is Synergy Wholesale, however the display address and actual sending address are notice(at)antiquites-alric(dot)fr,thefirstsign that all is not as it seems.
The subject line observed is Domain Renewal Notice, heralding a phishing email that targets your team's payment card data and one-time passcodes (OTP/3-D Secure).
Here's what the email looks like 👇
Clicking the 'Renew Your Domain' button leads victims to a payment page that asks for full card details, showing a small “order summary” and a pay button 👇
Click 'Complete Payment' and the page refreshes with a prompt to submit a one-time-code (OTC) SMS code 👇
The final step suggests that the verification failed, with a button prompting users to 'Try Again'. In truth, scam sequences like these are capturing SMS OTC codes that enable the criminals to process payments in the victim's credit card👇
Why this campaign is dangerous
- It combines card skimming with OTP interception, allowing criminals to bypass 3-D Secure protections.
- It abuses brand trust and service continuity anxiety. Domain and hosting notices create urgency that leads users to click.
- The pages use clean, modern UI and copy, lowering suspicion, and the checkout shows small financial charges that appear routine.
Red flags to look for
- Sender mismatch: “Synergy Wholesale” name, non-Synergy domain (antiquites-alric(dot)fr).
- Off-brand URLs: the payment and OTP pages are hosted on unrelated domains such as rifudogclub(dot)net.
- Generic content: no personalised account data, no legitimate account reference or ticket number.
- 3-D Secure in-page prompts: real 3-D Secure flows typically originate from your bank’s trusted payment gateway, not from a random site that already collected your card.
Indicators of compromise (IOCs)
- Sender: notice(at)antiquites-alric(dot)fr
- Display name: Synergy Wholesale
- Observed URL path: rifudogclub(dot)net/synergyAU/apps/html_template/…
- Themes: Domain renewal, hosting renewal, SSL renewal, urgent service suspension
Admins can add these to monitoring and blocklists. Note that infrastructure and paths will rotate, so rely on behavioural detection rather than only static IOCs.
Stay Safe, Know the Signs
MailGuard advises all recipients of these emails to delete them immediately without clicking on any links. Responding or providing personal details can lead to identity theft, data breaches, and financial losses.
Avoid emails that:
- Aren’t addressed to you personally.
- Are unexpected and urge immediate action.
- Contain poor grammar or miss crucial identifying details.
- Direct you to a suspicious URL that isn’t associated with the genuine company.
Many businesses turn to MailGuard after a near miss or incident. 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 specialist, 'zero zero-day' email security. Special Ops for when speed matters! Our real-time 'zero zero-day', email threat detection amplifies our client’s intelligence, knowledge, security and defence. Talk to a solution consultant at MailGuard today about securing your company's inboxes.
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