Identity theft with phishing: Fake payout from the Department of Health

• Scammers pretend to be the Federal Ministry of Health in a phishing email and want to steal your identity.
• A high reimbursement serves as bait for the trap.
• Do not respond to the demands and do not send a copy of your ID.

The promise of large sums of money is often used as a lure in phishing emails to reveal sensitive data. However, in a recent scam, cybercriminals are not satisfied with just your phone number or email address, they want to steal your entire identity right away. In order to get to their destination, they pretend to be the Federal Ministry of Health.

The message states that you are entitled to a refund of 250.75 euros. How this sum came about is not mentioned. In order for the payment to be made, a copy of your identity card is required. You will be asked to send a photo of the front and back to the e-mail address “bundesministerium-nahrung@faedo” as soon as possible.

If a copy of your ID gets into the hands of scammers, they can cause immense damage, for example by taking out loans or opening accounts in your name. The costs incurred are your responsibility. Under no circumstances should you carelessly forward such sensitive documents to third parties.

From the address it should already be clear that this message has nothing to do with the Ministry of Health. The part “Federal Ministry of Refund” should make the address look serious. However, the part after the @ is more important. Whatever “faedo” stands for, it’s not a trusted address. The impersonal form of address and the dubious sender address also expose the letter as a phishing attempt.

In addition, no authority would ever ask you to forward an unencrypted copy of your ID by e-mail, as reported by the consumer advice center. The mail should go to the spam folder without further consideration. No matter how high a promised sum is, don’t let it blind you and read everything carefully.

Simple signs: This is how you recognize every phishing email

A first indication that you have received a phishing email: the email will ask you to confirm personal data or to enter it on a website. This Under no circumstances should you comply with the request. In addition, criminals often use the official logos of the companies they are copying in their emails, but not official sender addresses.

If you find the sender suspicious, you should read the email twice. You will often find spelling mistakes or inconsistencies in German grammar. The attackers usually do not write their emails themselves, but instead use automatically generated messages or translate known emails with 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 with these if e-mail addresses, names and other information are sold for advertising purposes or passed on in criminal forums. With the data obtained, cyber criminals can also address future phishing attacks in a more targeted manner, making their attacks more effective.

Attachments and links contained in malicious e-mails also often inject malware or viruses onto your computer. In addition, you should not simply ignore suspicious emails. Forward them to the above email address and help us report future phishing attacks.

More fraud alerts on netzwelt – stay one step ahead of cybercriminals

But phishing emails are not the only danger lurking on the internet. In addition to fraud attempts, 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 subject of “Scam Alerts” below:

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