The Fear Tactic Yet Again
I recently found another example of emails sent that try to use fear to get you to click a link and very likely install malware that will give the sender access to your computer. This one had a subject of "Mail Server Notification", which sounds all nice and official, and it then proceeds to try to sound like a notification sent by a system administrator.
Two big giveaways here:
- The "From" email and name... it says "cPanel Admin" but the email is info@netmax.com.np which is obviously nothing to do with cPanel. One thing to watch for are the addresses (web or email) that have a .com followed by an additional "dot something". The very last part of an address is it's domain. While you might be suspicious of "np", they hope that you'll see the "com" part and overlook the rest.
- When hovering over the big blue button they want you to click (never click it, just hover) Chrome will show in the lower left corner the address that it would lead to if clicked. It's a pretty good chance that "tataprecision.com" has nothing to do with cPanel or my email service.
Looking for details like this can help you determine whether something is a dangerous spoof, if you're uncertain at first.
The main thing they are counting on when sending these kinds of emails is the panic a normal person might feel if told their email is going to all disappear if they don't do what the message tells you to do. Never click out of panic.
September 18, 2021 in Email, Security, Spam Hall of Shame.
About Nathan Lyle
Nathan is a father of four, an amateur musician, and an aspiring photographer. He started programming in 4th grade on an Apple II+ and many years later spent much of his college years freelancing website design for college departments. Nathan is a veteran of the Browser Wars, and will gladly talk at length about the changes he has seen in Web technology if you accidentally ask him.
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