Watch Out for Unsubscribe Scams That Might Be Used for Password Theft

If you keep your email inbox organized, you do not want to find any useless promotions, newsletters, or random messages that address you but are not sent to you personally. This could be a plead to sign a petition or, perhaps, a spam email. While it is easy to get rid of undesirable messages by unsubscribing from them, things are much more complicated when it comes to spam. Any interaction with spam emails could lead to bigger problems than an unorganized inbox, and so if it is flooding with spam, it is possible that your email address has been leaked and exposed. Some of these spam messages can be extremely clever, and they might offer you an option to unsubscribe. Unfortunately, if you interact with the unsubscribe link in spam emails of this kind, you might end up losing your privacy.

Why you need to take spam seriously

If you have encountered spam recently, you know that it can be pushy, aggressive, misleading, and persistent. That said, not all spam messages are obvious, especially if the recipient is less experienced with them. According to the statistics, people mostly received healthcare-related spam emails in 2019. That made up 39% of all spam emails, and it is likely that the number will be bigger for this year, given all of the COVID-19 scams. Other prevalent spam email categories included Products (12%), Adult (10%), and Extortion (10%). The cyberattackers behind these spam emails are well informed on how to trick people into believing that the messages they receive are genuine. Obviously, if the email does not address you properly (could use your email handle instead), if the message is presented in broken English, and if the content of that message is not personalized, you should identify a scam immediately.

However, if the attackers have some information about you (e.g., an old password or your full name), and if they construct a believable message – one that is complete with a normal-looking subject line, logos, and signatures – you might be tricked into doing something risky. Unfortunately, your chances of facing spam are pretty high. In fact, DataProt estimates that 45% of all emails are spam. A good portion of spam messages are phishing messages, and 73% of malware-infected spam mail is set up for identity theft. According to the data of CSO, over 90% of all malware is delivered by email. Most malware is spread using .exe files, and it is easy for cyberattackers to attach them to emails. They can be concealed as documents, images, and videos, and targets are tricked into executing malware themselves. Needless to say, spam emails must be taken seriously.

Why you should not rush to unsubscribe

If you are tired of receiving emails from popular companies and vendors, you should face no issues when unsubscribing from them. In most cases, the unsubscribe link can be found at the bottom of the message, and when you click it, you are introduced to a page signaling that you have been unsubscribed. You might also be asked what the reason for that action is. However, when it comes to spam, unsubscribing could prove to be dangerous. First of all, most spam emails do not include unsubscribe links at all because they do not take people’s privacy seriously, and they do not care whether these people find the received emails offensive, intrusive, or dangerous. The point is to ensure that the spam emails continue to flood the inbox.

There are also spam emails that are purposely set up to trick you into unsubscribing. If you receive a message that asks to confirm that you want to unsubscribe from emails sent by an unfamiliar sender, you have to be cautious. As you click the unsubscribe link in spam emails, you might be presented with a form asking to identify yourself. This is how schemers could phish your private information and even login credentials. If you think that it is safe enough to enter any kind of data just to get rid of spam, we have to warn that you are unlikely to successfully unsubscribe from spam. The same messages will continue flowing, but you will have shared data with attackers. If you end up revealing real personal data, you could receive much more personalized spam messages in the future, and this could increase the rate of successful attacks.

If cyberattackers successfully perform password theft with the help of fake unsubscribe forms, you are at serious risk. Especially if the password you are tricked into leaking has been reused several times. It takes no time at all for cybercriminals to try your email address and password combination on hundreds of websites to see if any accounts can be breached. Obviously, password theft is an extremely serious thing, and if you have become a victim, you need to take immediate action. Without a doubt, the best way to counteract password theft is by changing passwords. If the stolen password is unique, all you have to worry about is changing it. If it is not unique, and if it has been used on other accounts (even if with slight modifications, such as password123 or password321), you have to change all affected passwords.

Unfortunately, once password theft is performed, cybercriminals act instantly. You might not put two and two together fast enough before they take over your account, send malicious messages to your friends and colleagues, use your profiles to expose others to scams, or try to hijack other, perhaps more sensitive accounts. Unfortunately, if the attackers perform identity and password theft successfully, they might be able to impersonate you in various ways. Hopefully, you can fight off password theft quickly. Because time is of the essence in this situation, we strongly recommend implementing a password management tool. Cyclonis Password Manager can automatically detect weak passwords, and using it, you can change multiple breached passwords within moments. It also offers an array of other useful tools and features.

In conclusion, if you do not want to become a victim of password theft, you have to be cautious about how you unsubscribe from emails. You certainly do not want to click unsubscribe links in spam emails because they could be set up to perform identity and password theft. So, what are you supposed to do with spam emails? Check if your email provider offers spam filters. If it does, make use of them. Beware of all emails in the Spam folder. Though harmless emails could land here, most of them are bound to be malicious. Also, always report spam, especially if you receive it in your main inbox.

By Foley
December 15, 2020
December 15, 2020
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