ManiNot a week goes by where you do not find a major Cyber Security story in the news. Now, Naked Security is reporting, “Customer complaint” email scams preys on your fear of getting into trouble at work.
Most scams are socially engineered to prompt a reaction from the target either for anger, fear or any other emotion that they can tap into.
Getting the word out is important and while it seems the most important line of defense, it seems to do little good on the rate of recurrence of data theft.
Have you ever had an angry customer bellow the dreaded words, “Just you wait, I’m going to report you to your manager”, or something along those lines? The article on Naked security is willing to bet that you have and due to corona virus customer complaints are at an unprecedented levels right now.
And when someone does say, “I’m going to escalate this”, which is a confrontational, war-like expression at the best of times, it immediately becomes an uncertain, and often unpleasant, waiting game. Will the blustery behavior of ranting at you over the phone (or via IM, or on the support forum, or in a webchat session) provide the cathartic release the customer wanted, and bring their frustration to an end?
Well there are reports of just that. Hackers have figured that after impersonating IRS or law enforcement agents, trying to trap a victim pretending to be an upset customer is the next best option.
There is a dramatic uptick in fake emails trying to trap victims pretending to be customers who were mistreated.
Guilt + Fear = Haste
General caution, careful second look and thinking before clicking and save you and your loved ones a lot of trouble.
In fact, I am beginning to believe that more reporting is having the negative effect.
It has normalized Cyber Security incidents, and has made us helpless and lacking action.
If large enterprises and even governments are vulnerable, how can individual defend against this threat.
Imagine if we were this relaxed towards physical bank notes or even organizational assets.
In my view one of the reasons why IT Security is facing this challenge, is primarily due to lack seriousness in organization’s day-to-day body language. We say Cyber Security is important but in reality it’s not a priority.
Regardless of my skepticism, please please be careful of “Customer complaint” email scams and remember think before you click.
It is do able, it is not costly and it should be part of the enterprise architecture and DNA from day one.
I am a Cyber Security professional and a tech enthusiast. Feel free to reach out to me
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Mani Masood
