The nastiest phishing traps: You have to watch out for these 4 scams now

1. Payment data at risk

2. Update contact details for HypoVereinsbank

3. Threat of account blocking at ING

4. System renewal at Commerzbank

5. How to deal with phishing emails

6. Simple signs: How to recognize every phishing email

7. What do criminals achieve with phishing attacks?

Cybercriminals use spam calls, task scams on WhatsApp and malware in app stores to get your data and money. However, phishing emails are used more frequently. Thousands of these fake messages are sent every day in the name of large companies or financial institutions. Under some pretext, your personal information is then requested, often including your bank details.

This week, too, according to Consumer Center Many of these scams have landed in your inbox. In some cases, they are not easy to recognize. We unmask the phishing messages for you.

Payment data at risk

The first scam affects Amazon customers. The phishing emails are sent with the subject “Payment problem related to your Amazon Prime membership”. It states that the monthly costs for your Prime membership could not be debited from your credit card. You are therefore denied access and the benefits are no longer available.

A link in the email supposedly allows you to sign up for a new membership. However, you should ignore the request because the link leads to a dangerous site. The impersonal greeting, the British Amazon logo and the foreign-language sentence “Une question?” clearly indicate that the email comes from scammers.

Update contact details for HypoVereinsbank

Criminals also contact you under the subject “Final reminder: update your phone number for your HypoVereinsbank account”. To ensure the security of your account, you are asked to provide your contact details.

The telephone number is particularly important so that you can be contacted quickly in the event of suspicious activity. The data is to be disclosed via a link. This approach is typical for phishing attempts.

Threat of account blocking at ING

ING customers are also currently affected by phishing. You can recognize this email by the subject “Updating the ING-DiBa banking application.” After the incorrect address “Dear customer,” you are asked to renew. If you refuse, it will no longer be possible to access your account.

To put additional pressure on you, the scammers give you a deadline of five days. If you have not updated your account within this time, your account will be blocked. There is also a link to a fake website where your data will be intercepted.

System renewal at Commerzbank

A lot of emails are currently being sent to Commerzbank customers. The message with the subject “Update your profile for improved security in online banking” informs you that the bank has carried out a system update. The PhotoTAN process is particularly affected.

All you have to do now is log into your online banking using the attached link and update your profile. Of course, this is not true. The scammers just want to get your bank details in order to plunder your account.

How to deal with phishing emails

In none of the cases described should you click on the link. It always leads to a phishing page that appears to belong to the bank in question. If you enter the requested data, it will be sent immediately to the fraudsters. This way they can easily gain access to your account and plunder it. Identity theft as a result cannot be ruled out either.

As soon as an email asks for a data comparison, you can be sure that it does not come from your bank. They would never ask you to disclose your data. We advise you to move the phishing emails to your spam folder. We tell you why you should not delete them in the linked article.

Simple signs: How to recognize every phishing email

A first indication that you have received a phishing email: You will be asked to confirm personal data or enter it on a website. This You should not comply with this demand under any circumstancesIn addition, criminals often use the official logos of the companies they are copying in their emails, but not official sender addresses.

If the sender seems suspicious to you, you should read the email twice. This will often help you find spelling mistakes or inconsistencies in German grammar. The attackers usually don’t write their emails themselves, but instead use automatically generated messages or translate known emails using a translation program. But why all the effort?

What do criminals achieve with phishing attacks?

Phishing is used on the Internet to collect real user data. Money can be made from this when email addresses, names and other information are sold for advertising purposes or passed on in criminal forums. With the data obtained, cyber criminals can also target future phishing attacks more precisely and their attacks become more effective.

Attachments and links contained in malicious emails often introduce malware or viruses onto your computer. You should also not ignore suspicious emails. Forward them to the email address above and help us report on future phishing attacks.

More fraud warnings on igamesnews – Stay one step ahead of cyber criminals

But phishing emails are not the only danger lurking on the Internet. In addition to attempted fraud, there are all kinds of viruses, Trojans and malware that can infect your computer. Unfortunately, data scandals are also part of everyday digital life. You can see the five most recent articles on the topic of “fraud warnings” below:

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