EN
We’ve found lots of scams this week, including ones relating to USPS, Walmart, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, and MORE. Would you have been able to spot all these scams?
Impersonating trusted brands, and under a variety of pretenses, scammers love to spread phishing links via text message or email — always with the goal of stealing your personally identifiable information (PII) (i.e. email address, Social Security number, credit card number, and more). They will prompt you to click on attached phishing links to complete various tasks, e.g. track a package delivery, update account information, fill out an online survey, or more.
We’ve reported on fake USPS texts many times before. Pretending to be USPS, scammers prompt you to schedule a “redelivery” of a non-existent package by using their link to update the delivery address.
Sample fake USPS text (1/3). Source: Reddit
Sample fake USPS text (2/3). Source: Reddit
Sample fake USPS text (3/3). Source: Reddit
The links attached are phishing links that lead to phishing sites designed to record your PII. In this case, you will be taken to a fake USPS tracking page that will look identical to the legitimate one, except that the web address is not usps.com.
Sample fake USPS tracking page (phishing page!)
If you fall for the scam and submit your information, scammers can commit identity theft or other crimes using your data.
The top safety tip to avoid phishing scams is NEVER to click on any unknown links. Or, you can use our 100% FREE tool, Trend Micro Check, to help fight scams with ease!
Trend Micro Check is a free browser extension and mobile app for detecting scams, phishing attacks, malware, and dangerous links. Download today and surf the web with confidence!
The Trend Micro Check browser extension blocks dangerous sites in real time!
The Trend Micro Check app automatically detects and filters scams and spam 24/7.
Check out this page for more information on Trend Micro Check.
Have you ever received a text from Walmart that says you’ve won a reward? Beware — it’s a scam! We’ve reported on Walmart survey scams many times, and this week we detected a peak in phishing attempts using Walmart’s name:
You have struck the jackpot! You are Walmart’s current month’s rewards recipient! <URL>
The attached phishing link will take you to a fake Walmart page where scammers promise you a $500 Walmart gift card as a reward and try to trick you into revealing all your credentials in the end.
Sample fake Walmart survey page. (1/2)
Once again, any data entered will end up in the scammers’ hands.
Sample fake Walmart survey page. (2/2)
Back in 2022, we wrote about fake security alert emails impersonating QuickBooks, Intuit’s finance tool. Well, this week they’ve started to circulate again. Falsely claiming that your QuickBooks account is on hold, scammers instruct you to verify your identity via the link in the email.
Sample fake QuickBooks security alert email. (Intuit)
Take a closer look at the sender’s email address: the legitimate one should end with intuit.com, but the one shown here is missing an “i”. Plus, what’s extra tricky is that although the link seems genuine (www.intuit.com), it will take you to a fake Intuit login page instead. If you hover over the attached link you will realize. Don’t click!
Besides phishing scams, last week we also detected lots of fake online shops running bogus Memorial Day and Father’s Day sales campaigns (76,863 fake sites from May 15 to May 22 in total!).
#1 – Memorial Day
Sample fake Memorial Day-related promo campaign
Some red flags to watch out for when shopping online:
If you’ve found this article an interesting and/or helpful read, please SHARE it with friends and family to help keep the online community secure and protected. Also, please consider leaving a comment or LIKE below.
This article was published in association with Trend Micro.
