If you get an email warning that your Webcentral domain is about to be suspended, or any attached email and hosting services, think twice before clicking through.
With a subject reading, ‘Domain has Expired And has been Suspended, the email is likely to be a scam that claims to be a reminder, encouraging users to act now to avoid their services lapsing. The scam emails originate from an IP address associated with a company called "Aurba S.p.A", a European web hosting and data centre company and the phishing page itself is hosted using a compromised Plesk server.
An example of the email is shown below:
Aside from a handful of grammatical and formatting errors, the email and phishing pages employ accurate representations of Webcentral branding and logos, and could easily be mistaken as legitimate communications.
After clicking through on the email, the billing page lists a ‘Domain Name Renewal’ or ‘registration fee’ for payment, with a form at the bottom of the page to enter credit card information in order to process the payment.
After checking the ‘I agree to the terms outlined in the Terms and Conditions’ checkbox, and clicking the blue ‘Proceed Payment’ button, the final step refreshes the page requesting the SMS code sent to your mobile phone.
Clicking the final ‘Proceed Payment’ button actually processes a fraudulent payment to the criminals behind the scam.
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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