The COVID-19 pandemic is currently causing a lot of fear and panic on a global scale. Cyber-criminals, however, saw it as an opportunity to further their fraudulent and malicious activities and take advantage of people during these trying times by creating massive amount of Coronavirus websites and domains.
People are staying at home and are more dependent on the internet for news, work and other stuff.
According to a renowned cyber security firm, the Coronavirus websites are 50% more likely to be malicious than other web domains. For the past three weeks (since the end of February 2020), they have noticed an unusual climb in the number of domains registered.
According to them, the number of newly-registered domains is ten times more than the average amount found in previous weeks.
Cybercriminals are not just after COVID-19 related domains, they also generate coronavirus websites and COVID-19 related “promotional offers” for their “goods” laced with malware or exploit kits and selling it on the Dark Web with keywords like “COVID19” or “coronavirus” used as discount codes for other cyber-criminal wannabes.
The Coronavirus pandemic is also utilized in many Fake Online Merchants for their “Sales” offerings for premium goods at a huge amount of discount.
Prevent yourself from becoming a victim by being vigilant – watch out for those online promos that are obviously too good to be true.
You can follow these tips to avoid being scammed:
- Always inspect the emails that you are getting, especially if they have a file attached or link on them.
- Don’t open a file or click a link from unknown sources.
- Make sure to check and purchase goods only from authentic and verified sources.
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