Faced with the various security measures that are put in place, hackers are increasing their ingenuity. Among the tools at their disposal that allow them to pass spam filters is the QR code. If you receive one by email, be aware that it is probably a scam.
The practice is not new but, since the COVID epidemic, it has become more widespread. Hackers take advantage of the fact that QR codes are not recognized within an image by spam filters to use them. According to Cisco Talo, more than 60% of emails that contain such code are scams. According to recently collected data, there is a phishing attempt using this method every 500 emails.
Scammers take advantage of this square image to arouse the curiosity of their victims. They see the QR code, pull out their scanning application on their smartphone and the trap closes. They open a site which aims to recover their sensitive data. This ranges from contact details to passwords, including banking details. To make detecting malicious QR codes even more difficult, some hackers construct them using Unicode characters.
Unfortunately, they use several strategies to trick you into scanning it. This could be an alert regarding one of your accounts, an unmissable offer from a reseller, to warn of a (false) delivery problem, etc. They even appear in our streets, mainly on parking meters. They are stuck on it to mislead users who think they scan the link to download the application to pay for their parking.
Faced with this threat, as is often the case when it comes to scams, vigilance is the best weapon. If the sender of the email is not one of your contacts or if their address seems strange, don’t click. If the code should send you to the site of a recognized entity, it is better to connect to it through the official site, to be found via a search engine. Ideally, limit scanning of these items, and if you do, double-check the URL it’s trying to take you to. If the latter asks you for sensitive data, be wary.
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