Cybercrime, email: more spoofing and phishing

Self-tutoring about email phishing attacks via spoofing: the tutor mentions a fresh case.

The following is according to my understanding.

Since the email I got “from myself” (see my post here), I’ve taken more interest in the Junk folder.

Yesterday, on another email client, I noticed, in the Junk emails, one apparently from Canada Post. I didn’t open it, but rather looked up how to view it in plain text, then did so.

The plain text view renders no images or interactive elements; it just shows the coding behind what a person would see if they viewed the email. This email in particular wanted to be rendered as a web page.

In the plain text version of the email, I could look at the sources for the images that would be loaded if the html were rendered. The images were from Canada Post. It seems this hacker has copied one of Canada Post’s web pages and then sent it as an email.

Scanning the plain text for the phishing mechanism, I discovered a “click here to pay” link which led to a page on a social media platform.

I might report said phishing attempt, because it pretends to be from Canada Post. Not only is it a fraud, it’s also plagiarism.

Beware: such a scam email, but appearing to be from another Canada agency, such as Revenue Canada, is likely just as possible.

How the email program knew the email was a scam, so had put it in Junk automatically, I hope to cover in another post.