New phishing scams, fake FTC letters and more

Nothing’s sacred. Cybercriminals are now faking those “https” secure websites. Don’t fall for them plus assorted new phishing scams and fraudulent Federal Trade Commission letters.

Mittens Andersen discovered that the last check she wrote bounced. She was dumbfounded because she’d always maintained a healthy balance in her account. Bank officials told her that cybercriminals probably stole her bank account number through an advanced “https” phishing scheme, which directed her to a fake website she thought was secure.

‘https’ phishing scam

In a recent PSA, the FBI reported a new phishing campaign that has serious implications for stealing personally identifiable information (PII) from unsuspecting victims. (See Cyber Actors Exploit Secure Websites in Phishing Campaigns, FBI, June 19, 2019.)

Many website addresses begin with https, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Secure organizational websites normally include a lock icon in the web browser address bar. The combination of the lock icon and https in a web address normally indicates that web traffic is encrypted, which provides some basic assurance that visitors can safely share data.