"Disable Card": Beware of MasterCard phishing in April

New scam

MasterCard customers will be hit by phishing emails in April. Under the subject line "Disable Card", criminals try to convince you that your card has been blocked. The requirements mentioned are very dangerous.

We receive many emails every day, and readers can forward phishing or suspicious emails to us through these emails. Currently, we find the subject line "deactivate card" in the mailbox very frequently. Behind it is a phishing attempt in the name of Mastercard, which contains a so-called credit card freeze.

As you can see in the picture gallery of the following article, the credit card company logo shines in the email. Otherwise, the message will be written ingeniously, at first glance it seems to be true. The full text is as follows:

From: MasterCard team
Subject: Deactivate card
A
Dear Customer,
When we checked your account details, we found that you have not confirmed the data for more than a year. Your card has been temporarily disabled. In order to continue to keep your account safe, we ask you to update your data.
Complete the confirmation within 48 hours, otherwise your account will be closed. This is no longer possible to activate.
To the form
Thank you for your help and hope your understanding.
Sincerely
Your MasterCard team

There are few spelling errors in the email, and the "status" is written in lower case only in the first paragraph. However, you should note that banks and credit card companies will never enter personal information into you via email. In addition, you should check the sender's address and the link contained in the email.

Although the "MasterCard Team" is designated as the sender, the company name cannot be found in the email address. Even links that should link to forms will not refer to Mastercard pages. Instead, you will end up with a copy with a login mask.

This is how to use your data

The website behind the link is also based on MasterCard design. The front desk is a login mask where you should use MasterCard data to log in. Performance: You also enter your address, your age, and finally the credit card number, including the check number and expiration date.

This is how criminals steal your MasterCard data

If you enter data here, criminals can easily misuse your credit card. In the last step, they even redirect you to the real MasterCard homepage, so as not to cause any doubt. If you have entered data on a fake page, you should definitely inform the credit card company and prevent your card from being used.

If you receive this email or a similar phishing email, you can help us investigate. We set up an email address for this, where you can forward suspicious emails. You can contact them here:

Do you always want to know the latest phishing attempts? Then regularly check our current fraud warnings and subscribe to Netzwelt on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch now