If you’re one of the 1.44 billion Instagram users worldwide, you just might be in the firing line of the latest scam that landing in inboxes this week.
Almost 1 in 4 people over 13 years of age on the planet, use Instagram, which is why the blue ‘Verified’ badge is so sought after. According to Meta, Instagram’s parent company, “Verified badges help people more easily find the public figures, celebrities and brands that they want to follow.”
In the latest email scam that’s being intercepted by MailGuard, emails targeting Instagram users with the subject “blue badge”, claim that ‘Your Instagram account has been reviewed by us and has been deemed eligible for the blue badge.” The sender email address is ig-badges(at)badgesystemteam(dot)com, an address that has been registered by the scammers to mimic an authentic Instagram support team. This domain, and the phishing page ‘teamtruebadge.com’, are hosted by Hertzner Online Gmbh, a German cloud services and hosting company.
The email carries Instagram and Facebook brand marks and urges recipients to ‘click the “Badge Form” button below’.
Here’s an example of one of the emails:
After clicking the “Badge Form” button in the email, users are directed to a phishing page hosted at the aforementioned URL, ‘teamtruebadge.com’, which uses the recognisable Instagram colour palette and carries ‘Meta’ branding. The first page asks users for their ‘username’.
After continuing, users are asked to confirm their ‘name’, ‘email address’ and ‘phone number’, supposedly so that the Instagram team can contact them. This page now uses Instagram and Facebook branding.
After capturing the users, username and contact details, on the next page the scammers ask for their ‘Password’ to ‘Verify that the account is yours’.
Regardless of whether the credentials were correct or not, the page presents an error and asks the user to try again. The error message reads “Sorry, your password is incorrect. Check and try again, otherwise your account will not be approved.”
After logging in the second time, users are presented with an ‘Account Verified’ page with a large blue tick to confirm their success. The message reads ‘Thank you for verifying your account. Our team will contact you as soon as possible. (Average 48 hours).’ Followed by a CASE ID and case number, mimicking an authentic interaction with a support team member.
Popular tech vendors and platforms like Instagram are attractive targets for cybercriminals, due to their trusted brand and enormous customer base. Earlier this year MailGuard intercepted similar scams, in February warning users of a breach of copyright, and in March offering a ‘verified’ badge, just like this one.
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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