A men’s lifestyle and shopping blog are among a number of businesses compromised in the latest phishing scam intercepted by MailGuard, targeting Microsoft Office 365 users. Cybercriminals warn victims that their password is expiring, and if not rectified, they threaten those users will lose access to their Office 365 account. With more than 300 million users worldwide requiring immediate access to their Microsoft 365 services for daily work purposes, it is likely that unsuspecting victims will fall prey to the scam.
The email has been sent from ‘Support IT’ with the subject title ‘Re: Passowrd Expiring Notice for [Insert Recipient]’ (notice the spelling error of the word password, as an early indication of its illegitimacy). The body of the email uses an outdated Microsoft logo to preface the ‘Password Expiring Notification!’ message supplied to the recipient. Users are advised that they must take immediate action to ‘keep your password’.
Here’s what the email looks like:
After clicking on the blue ‘KEEP YOUR PASSWORD’ button, users are then taken to the phishing page below that asks for their Office 365 password. This page more accurately reflects an authentic Microsoft login page.
Victims are then redirected to a legitimate Office.com website after cybercriminals have harvested the password credentials.
MailGuard urges all recipients of this email to delete it immediately without clicking on any links. Providing details such as your login email or password to your Microsoft Office 365 account means that cybercriminals can access details such as your email, calendars, contacts and sensitive company information that can be used to design BEC scams, for identity fraud, or sold on the dark web, plus other criminal activity.
Users should not click on 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 omit 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.
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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