Heads Up! Don’t Be Fooled, That Email Might Not Be From A Legit Company

As we head into the upcoming months, scammers are increasing their usage of phishing scams.

Consumers who receive an email that appears to be from a well-known company should look at it carefully before responding.

This week’s ConsumerAffairs-Trend Micro Theat Alert has iden. tified phishing scams posing as Adobe, USSA, and Norton. Trend Micro’s research team identified scammers impersonating Adobe Doc Security and prompted email receivers to click the fake URL to see the shared file that shows 100% clean. We found 457 logs on September 25.

Trend Micro’s research team also identified scammers impersonating the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) and informing email receivers to verify their account to process a payment on hold.  

Jon Clay, vice president of Threat Intelligence at Trend Micro, says consumers should be aware of scams that target them using insurance company’s branding. 

“Trend Micro’s research team has identified impostors using USAA’s name to lure victims into sharing their personal information,” Clay told ConsumerAffairs. “Consumers should disregard any messages not originating from their actual insurance providers, as legitimate companies do not engage in such practices with their customers.”

The Norton phishing scam operates along similar lines. The email prompts victims to renew their subscriptions to the antivirus software. Again, the scammers are after victims’ personal information.

Here are some other scams that have shown up in big numbers this week:

Auspost Shipping Scam 

• Trend Micro’s research team identified scammers impersonating the Australia Post (Auspost) to alert customers that their parcel delivery was unsuccessful. The scammers prompted victims to update their delivery information and payment details. 
• The top five states being targeted are Texas, California, Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Walmart Scam 

• Trend Micro’s research team identified scammers pretending to be Walmart’s online support and informing victims they won a 65 Samsung 8K TV in a competition a while ago. To declaim for the prize, victims are prompted to provide their personal and credit card information to the ‘online support.’ 
• The top  states being targeted are Texas, Massachusetts, California, Illinois and New York.

Back to School Shopping Scam 

• Between July 1-September 26, Trend Micro found 326,078 back-to-school shopping-related scam URLs in the US, which increased by 10.8% compared to the previous week. 
• Trend Micro found an 80.17% increase year over year. 
• The top five states being targeted the most in 2023 are Oregon, Virginia, California, Texas and New York.

To find more articles regarding scams please click here.

Photo credit: HWM.