An email scam using the Better Business Bureau’s name and logo continues to proliferate across North America. Most of the emails carry the famous BBB torch logo and come with the subject line “Complaint from your customers.” The emails have a link or an attachment containing malicious phishing malware that steals information, often with devastating results.
One business opened the affected attachment, which launched malware that quickly found the accounting office’s computers, accessed bank numbers and passwords, and nearly completed a fund transfer from the company’s account. The business had to completely wipe the computers in order to contain the damage to the network.
Because of experiences such as this one, the Chattanooga BBB has updated its advice and recommends the following to anyone who receives the email:
• Do not open any attachments
• Do not click on any links
• Delete the email
• Run a full system scan using reputable virus software
The Chattanooga BBB had recommended running a full system scan only if the recipient had clicked on the link or opened the attachment, but due to the virulent nature of the virus, the new recommendation is for everyone who receives it to do the scan. In offices or homes that are networked, all computers should be scanned.
Chris Garver, chief information officer at the Council of Better Business Bureaus, recommends that all domain owners set up a sender policy framework and set their spam filter to use it. “Using the SPF standard helps fight spam and phishing attacks by allowing your email servers to verify whether an email is legitimate or not,” he says.
If you receive an email saying your business has a complaint filed against it with the Chattanooga BBB, there are several things you can do to authenticate it, such as: looking for typos and grammatical errors, which could indicate it originated overseas; checking to see who the recipient is, as complaints go out from the local BBBs, not from the headquarters office; moving your mouse over the link to see if its destination is really a bbb.org address; and copying and pasting the link into Notepad (not Word). Notepad does not support html, so if the link is a fake bbb.org address, the real link will show up.
If you still are not sure, go to chattanooga.bbb.org and send them a new email to ask if you have a complaint. Do not reply to the email you received, or forward it to them.
The Chattanooga BBB is working with federal law enforcement agencies to identify the perpetrator of this fraud, and is also looking into other measures it can take to help prevent future phishing scams from spreading.
Source: Chattanooga BBB