Latest victim credits for Le Monde phishing campaign: Shutterstock: Britcats Studio
Le Monde has warned subscribers that they have identified themselves as victims of a phishing campaign.
Le Monde subscribers are advised to use fraudulent emails as their “cyber weapons” of choice. The email is designed to encourage subscribers to renew their subscriptions and appears to have been sent from a French publication. The subjects used include “Make sure your subscription does not expire and do not renew your subscription”, “To continue to benefit from the service, please renew your subscription before it expires” and “The subscription will expire soon! Don’t lose your profits, please extend it now.”
Le Monde Phishing Scam is focused on renewing subscriptions
Like most email scams, there is a link to click to enter the personal information you need as part of the “update” process. However, this is a way to make the people behind this phishing campaign accessible to bank details, postal addresses and phone numbers.
Le Monde advises all subscribers to delete this email if they receive it, and under any circumstances please click on the link. For those unhappy enough to have already been caught up in this persuasively-looking email, they strongly recommend contacting the bank as soon as possible. You can then advise on which steps you need to take if fraud or data theft occurs.
Additionally, they advise you to be particularly wary of potential fraudulent calls and even visiting your home if the postal address is revealed. Individuals behind the scam can contact you by phone or make home visits pretending to be Le Monde’s advisor, bank representative, “anti-Fraud” agents, or even courier companies.
Le Monde issues advice to reduce the risk of phishing attempts
To limit the risk of phishing attempts, Le Monde provided the following advice to subscribers:
Always check the sender’s email address. Emails related to subscription management are only sold at: lemonde@fidelite-abo.lemonde.fr.
Do not download attachments. Emails sent from Le Monde do not include attachments except for images integrated into the body of the message. If you receive a message with an attachment, we recommend that you do not open it.
You can change your password to increase your account security. Choose a strong password that combines upper limits with lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. To reset your password, click on the following link: https://secure.lemonde.fr/sfuser/password/lost.
Report suspicious messages. If you receive an email that appears to be coming from Le Monde but appears to be suspicious of its content or address, please report it to clientnumerique@lemonde.fr.
When making subscribers aware of this phishing campaign, Lemond reassured readers that the data has not been compromised because the system has not been hacked.
To you – do you think you are doing well to educate and protect against cybercrime?
Find more articles written by Donna Williams
