At the height of Black Friday, hackers are trying to steal our credit information. They do this by impersonating the Israel Post and announcing the arrival of a package. In recent days, a malicious message has been distributed, all the details of which are below And also, tips for defense and what to do in case the details have already been entered
November, the big shopping month, is a month in which the number of our purchases online has increased significantly. The increase in the amount of purchases comes with an increase in fraud attempts.
A simple way that unfortunately still traps quite a few people, is to send them a message announcing the arrival of the package they ordered (because who is not the time package this month?) And that they have to pay customs for the release.
This is not a new scam, in March of this year, we warned of a popular SMS announcing the arrival of a package and a request for payment of shipping costs, and in May we reported an email claiming that the recharged card should be activated and payment method entered.
An example of such a post.
In July, the Israel Police also reported further attempts to impersonate the Israel Post and even asked the public to file an online complaint with all the details.
So how does the scam work?
The attackers send a message announcing the arrival of a package from abroad. Using the link they attach, the recipients are asked to confirm the shipping costs.
As you can see, the message shows a tracking number similar to the numbers that are actually received from the mail when a package arrives.
Recipients who clicked on the link, came to a landing page where they were asked to enter a lot of data including: phone, ID, email, password, name, credit card number, validity and three digits on the back of the card.
The data that the victims fill out and pass on directly to the attacker.
You wonder, how the hackers knew, that the recipient who received the message was really waiting for the package. The answer to this is that in order to succeed in their scams, they aim for a broad common denominator, the Israeli public is known as a heavy customer of packages from abroad, so it helps their scam to look more real.
What can you do to protect yourself?
The information security company ESET Israel offers:
1. Be aware, hackers are not resting, and it is important that we all know and know that we are indeed on target especially when we are at the height of the online shopping season.
2. Be careful not to enter credit information, especially when the application has reached you, and not an outgrowth of an action that you yourself have initiated.
3. Check if the package number you received in the message matches the package number you ordered.
4. Try to figure out if you really made an order that might require you to pay shipping or customs. And even more than that, are you supposed to receive your package through Israel Post or another shipping provider?
Have you already entered your details?
Check the credit charges and if necessary contact the credit company. If there are indeed charges you did not make, you may be asked to cancel your credit card. By the way another tip that can help especially in case something happens, is a dedicated credit card for online shopping. Such that if you have to cancel it, you will not affect your additional current charges.