Fake Telstra Email Bill

Anatomy of a classic email scam

It starts with a very authentic looking email arriving in your inbox....

Note that this is a very accurate version of a genuine Telstra Email Bill, let's check the sender/receiver details...

Well, they nailed my email address but the sender address is clearly not from Telstra so you would junk the email.  In this case it is quite likely that the lyricsandlettering.com email account has been compromised and the scammers are using it to spam these fake Telstra emails right across Australia.

Note that every link in the fake email takes you to a genuine Telstra web page except one....

If you mouse-over the "View Bill" button you will notice that you will be re-directed to a non-Telstra website, in fact if you are using Gmail, Google will advise you not to follow the link because it is suspicious

The warning clearly states you are not being directed to a Telstra website, so again, junk the email

Fortunately, the scam websites are usually shut down within a few hours as people start reporting the scam.  Today it's a fake Telstra email, tomorrow it could be a fake Tax Office email or a fake NBNco email.  If you mouse-over any link you can see where it might take you and if you are unsure, don't click the link!  Companies like Telstra need to change their own systems to prevent scammers from easily duplicating what they send.  When these scams are successful, they are designed to harvest email addresses (with matching passwords) and the whole gamut of personal and financial information, so be wary!  For more information, contact us at Lincoln Computer Centre