Threat Actors Abuse Covid-19 Omicron Anxiety in Phishing Scam
With the entire world seized in a new wave of anxiety caused by the appearance of the new Omicron Covid-19 variant, hackers and bad actors are also doing their worst to make the most out of the current situation. Security researchers are warning about an ongoing phishing message campaign that aims to steal people's personal information, playing on their anxiety and fears over the Omicron variant.
The campaign appears to be targeting only individuals inside the United Kingdom, at least until now. The bad actors are using a simple but effective bit of social engineering, trying to play on people's worries over the Covid Omicron variant that is still being researched and examined by the world medical community, but which the WHO has flagged as a significant new mutation of the virus.
The phishing messages are being distributed using every venue available to the threat actors behind the campaign. Researchers report the usual fare of phishing emails, but also text messages and even actual phone calls with malicious operators on the line. Being able to hire and afford people to operate this sort of campaign implies a resourceful party behind the campaign.
The phishing messages are specially tailored to at least visually look like correspondence coming from the legitimate UK National Health Service. If it weren't for the poor grammar used in the body of the messages, the scam would have been much more effective.
Potential victims of the scam receive a message warning of the dangerous new Omicron Covid variant. The phishing message then makes the claim that existing PCR tests don't detect Omicron reliably and offers a fake, free special PCR test. The language of the messages is specially tailored to instill panic and fear in the reader and make them act spontaneously - just what the hackers want.
Following the malicious link in the phishing messages opens up a website that is made to resemble a legitimate NHS web page, containing forms for victims to enter their full names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and real addresses. Of course, this information is never transferred to the UK NHS but ends up in the hands of the criminals behind the phishing campaign.
As usual with this type of phishing campaign, caution is advised. The best defense against this type of scam is a cool head, not giving in to impulse and panic, then fact-checking everything contained in the original message first.
