O2 customers under attack by Russian phishing scam
If you’re an O2 customer in the UK, beware of an email scam that has hit customers of the network operator.
The scam was witnessed firsthand by KnowYourMobile. They received convincing emails in their inbox, allegedly coming from the network’s customer support with the address ‘Customerservice@02.co.uk’. The real O2 customer support spells O2 with an ‘O’ rather than a ‘zero’.
In the email, you are referred to as “o2 Customer”. It reads:
“Dear o2 Customer,
Your two incoming message were placed in pending status due to the recent upgrade to our database
In order to receive the messages, click here to login and wait for responds from o2
Thanks
o2 Customer Care”
Signing off as the ‘The o2!® Security Department’, the link will direct you to a seemingly authentic but fake O2 homepage.
The email will be sent directly to your inbox on smartphones such as the iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy S2. Surprisingly, it has also reached Vodafone and Orange customers via Microsoft Outlook.
KnowYourMobile reports that their office firewall reveals that the emails were sent from Russia with a ‘kostya@mail2.stroyka74.ru’ address.
O2 is yet to release an official statement on the matter. We’ll keep you posted once we know more. In the meantime, beware of this Russian phishing scam.
