When we started warning you about phishing scams years ago, they were much easier to spot. Criminals were more careless back in the day and would regularly send emails full of typos and bad grammar.
Fast forward to today and crooks are using sophisticated tools to spoof messages and websites that make them look real. Phishing emails now can include official company logos that make them seem legit. Tap or click here to see a recent phishing scam making the rounds.
Since Black Friday is right around the corner, scammers are taking full advantage of the shopping holiday. You really need to watch for these email scams.
Criminals are going phishing for Black Friday
Whenever a major story goes viral or a massive data breach occurs, scammers pounce to take advantage of it. That’s because they know many people are aware of what’s going on and won’t think twice if they get an email that’s on topic.
The problem is, many of those emails that seem like they’re coming from legit companies are actually fake. And the problem is getting much worse.
What’s happening now is, scammers are spoofing website URLs and making one little tweak that you might not notice. The web address is spelled correctly, but instead of using all of the proper letters, they’re replacing at least one with an ALT code that adds an accent.
For example: instead of using a typical lower-case “e,” as you see in “Best Buy,” a scammer could replace it with an “é.” Notice the little accent mark on top of the “e.”
Anyone can do this by holding the Alt key and typing 0233. It results in what’s called the “e acute” ALT code. So instead of going to the official Best Buy site, you could be clicking on a link to a spoofed Best Buy page.
