Alleged complaints
Consumer advocates warn: Web.de and Gmx.de users are the target of fraud
Anyone who receives an email claiming to have “complaints about your email account” should delete the fraud attempt immediately.
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The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center warns of attempted fraud. Users of Gmx.de and Web.de accounts are supposed to be lured into a trap.
Web.de and Gmx.de are among the largest email providers in the country. A fraud campaign that targets users of both platforms is usually worthwhile – because you can reach a lot of people with one scam. The The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center is now warning against the ongoing sending of so-called phishing emails, which aim to unsettle customers with false accusations and access data.
Scam threatens to close account
The consumer advocates write: “In the emails, alleged complaints from other email services about your own email address are discussed on the grounds that malware and viruses have been sent. In contrast to the subject, the email mentions 42 complaints instead of 48. In Clarification will then be requested to avoid account closure in the next 48 hours.”
The wording of the emails is, as usual, very bumpy and does not correspond to the language that both companies would use in official letters. It says: “I am the customer service center representative at GMX/WEB.de”. Next: “We received 42 complaints about your email account recently”. It continues in a similarly strange way when it then says: “There are thousands of spam emails sent from your email address in the last 3 days. We now need your clarification to request the deletion of the E email account within 48 hours.
Alleged link to antivirus program is harmful
Instead of attaching a supposed link to a form for the said “clarification”, a recommendation follows to install an antivirus program. “We will choose the best one for you,” it says. Including a button that, according to the consumer advice center, leads to a harmful website where the fraudsters want to steal data.
“We therefore recommend that you move these unanswered emails to the spam folder,” is the conclusion of the consumer advocates.
The best way to protect yourself from spam is to pay close attention to the text. The majority of fraud attempts are hastily formulated and contain strange to severely incorrect wording. If you are unsure about an email, do not click on any links contained therein, but instead copy passages of text and search for them on the Internet – you will often come across warnings like these. If you don’t find anything, contact the specified company from which the letter supposedly comes – it will often be clear very quickly whether they really need to take action or whether it was just an attempt to deceive you – for whatever reason .