“important message”: phishing attempt with a change in the law

• Your postal bank account supposedly needs the security system BestSign.
• It is said that this was found out in the course of new legislation.
• In fact, it’s a phishing scam.

A popular scam used by cybercriminals is to unsettle you with supposed changes in the law in phishing emails. As a Postbank customer, you could currently fall victim to this trick. In a message with the subject “important message”, the fraudsters want you to believe that Postbank is obliged under new legislation to regularly check the stored data of its customers.

When checking your account, it was found that you have not yet activated a security system called BestSign. This fact supposedly leads to temporary restriction of your account. It can only be used again if you activate BestSign via the attached link.

However, we strongly advise against this. Because the link takes you to a fake Postbank page that asks for your bank details. If you give them, the criminals can access your account. The consumer advice center notes that the e-mail can be recognized as a fake quite quickly due to spelling mistakes and the lack of a salutation.

Don’t bother with the phishing attempt and simply move the email to the spam folder. If you have entered your data, get in touch with your contact person or the Postbank hotline immediately. If you act quickly enough, you can still prevent your account from being misused.

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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