WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Secret Service is warning individuals about email scams associated with coronavirus.
According to the Secret Service, cyber criminals are exploiting the coronavirus through the wide distribution of mass emails posing as medical or health organizations.
"In one particular instance, victims have received an email purporting to be from a medical/health organization that included attachments supposedly containing pertinent information regarding the Coronavirus," they explained. "This lead to either unsuspecting victims opening the attachment causing malware to infect their system, or prompting the victim to enter their email login credentials to access the information resulting in harvested login credentials."
More of these incidents are expected and increased vigilance regarding email communication is encouraged.
They have some tips to avoid being scammed by these people.
- Avoid opening attachments and clicking on links within emails from senders you do not recognize.
- Be leery of emails or phone calls requesting account information or requesting you verify your account, legitimate businesses will not call or email you directly for this information.
- Always independently verify any requested information originates from a legitimate source.
- Visit websites by inputting the domain name yourself. Business use encryption, Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Certificate “errors” can be a warning sign that something is not right with the website.
