Phishing Scam Leverages Fake List of Undelivered Emails to Trick Users Into Clicking

A phishing scam is leveraging a fake list of undelivered emails to trick users into clicking and exposing their login credentials.

Bleeping Computer first discovered the phishing scam when it received an email bearing the following subject line: “Notifications | undelivered emails to your inbox.” The body of the email displayed what appeared to be a list of undelivered messages from the email server. It then offered four options: release the emails for delivery, always allow them in the future, deny them or delete them altogether.

Clicking on any one of those options redirects the user to a fake Outlook Web App login page that includes a prompt for authentication. If the user complies and attempts to log in, the page stores the credentials for scammers to retrieve at a later time.

There’s Plenty of Phish in the Sea

Bleeping Computer’s discovery comes on the heels of several recently reported phishing-related incidents. In late May, for instance, the security news and research site received a phishing scam in which fraudsters falsely warned Office 365 users that they would lose all their emails unless they canceled an account deactivation request within an arbitrary period of time. Just a few months earlier, Bleeping Computer observed a sample of a campaign that brazenly used phishing links consisting of approximately 1,000 characters.

How to Stay Ahead of an Advanced Phishing Scam

Ahead-of-threat detection — an advanced phishing protection method developed by IBM X-Force — can help security teams spot potentially malicious domains before they become active. Security leaders should also conduct test phishing engagements to expand security awareness among the workforce and help employees avoid social engineering attacks such as phishing campaigns.

David Bisson

Contributing Editor

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There’s Plenty of Phish in the Sea

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