Category: Coronavirus

November 1, 2021

Covid Travel Certificate Scam

There are numerous Covid scams and some of the scammers have moved off offering magic remedies and fake Covid tests to Covid passports and Travel certificates instead.

The email title is “IMPORTANT OFFICIAL Invitation for your Covid passport – Digital Covid-19 certificate (receipt #190934152220918221)”

Scammers seem to think that ridiculously long random numbers are somehow impressive.

The message contains paragraphs taken from the government website about vaccination certificates, to try to make it look genuine.

The message then claims that use of such a certificate means no need for PCR testing, quarantine or any other travel restriction or leaving or entering the country.

That bit is false of course even for genuine vaccination certificate holders.

The final part of the email is a link to click to accept the invitation and a link to click to reject it.

Both in fact lead to the same fake website designed to collect your personal information and send it to the scammer.

Make sure to use the correct government websites and to ignore such scam messages.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

October 18, 2021

Covid-19 Passport Scam

This is a new Covid scam.

The email title calls the message an “Official Notification – NHS COVID-Pass – GOV.CO.UK | COVID_19 Vaccination-Passport | Your GOVnhsoffice.co.uk order of “UK CVD19”

It offers the recipient the opportunity to get a Covid-19 passport which really means a certificate to prove the recipient is vaccinated against Covid-19 and is currently Covid-19 negative.

The government do not send out such emails and private companies are not allowed to offer this.

Most of the message is text copied from various websites about how this is needed to open up travel again.

There is a big green ACCEPT button and a big red REJECT button.

Both of which go to the same link which is at a Japanese domain name that is nothing to do with the UK government.

Scammers often target major problems in the world and have no interest in helping anyone but themselves.

Delete any such messages.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

September 29, 2021

The Effects of Covid on Cyber Security

A recent government survey looks at the effects of the Covid pandemic on companies and charities as they deal with lockdowns, increased online activity and increased levels of cyber attacks and scams.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021

Some Key Points:

85% of businesses and 80% of charities say COVID-19 has made no change to the importance they place on cyber security although some organisations have increased their investment in IT and cyber security in response to the pandemic. Many organisations adopted new security solutions, including cloud security and multi-factor authentication, or more use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

Changes in Working Practice

Many organisations explained that COVID-19 and the ensuing move to home working initiated substantial changes in their digital infrastructure. This included issuing laptops or tablets to staff, setting up VPNs or using cloud systems and had to quickly approve new software.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made cyber security harder for many organisations, for reasons including:

Direct security and user monitoring have become harder in organisations where staff are working remotely.
Upgrading hardware, software and systems has also become more difficult. With staff working at home, there are more endpoints for organisations to keep track of.
The pandemic had stretched resources and led to competing priorities in IT and cyber security teams.

As the UK emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations might also consider what more

they can do to manage cyber security risks in a “blended” working environment (i.e. where staff

are regularly working both in offices and at home)

Se the survey for full details at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

July 25, 2021

Stupidest Spam of the Week Support Grants

There have been endless Coronavirus scams and many have focussed on government grants, income replacement schemes etc. Some are messages that make little attempt to look realistic but some scammers have gone to great lengths to make their messages appear genuine.

This latest set is just a copy of previous scam messages and is obviously fake.

Instead of showing my email address as the recipient it shows ‘no-reply’.

It claims to be from the government and that they have determined I am eligible for a grant, but the sender doesn’t know my name.

Part way through the explanation the grant turns into a tax refund which is totally different from a grant.

The message says I need my driving licence and passport in order to claim online – if I am already identified and eligible for a grant then there would be no need for such documents, especially to have both which would be pointless except to a scammer seeking ID information to sell to other scammers to use in identity theft.

The link to click which supposedly is to the HMRC web site is actually to alive-11cn.net which is clearly not the government.

Finally, the email threatens that any wrong input will be criminally pursued which is an odd phrase and certainly not used by government. And that ‘delibrate’ wrongness is not allowed. A curious misspelling in a world where everyone has a spell checker.

All fake of course, trying to steal from people affected by the pandemic.

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June 28, 2021

The Vaccine Survey Scam

Scammers are circulating fake vaccine surveys.

So far they are targeting the Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca vaccines.

The advert / email / texts / social media post tells you that by filling in a short survey on your experience of the vaccine you will be saving lives.

Plus, you are promised a reward worth at least $90

You just have to pay the shipping cost.

That’s how they get people to input their credit card details and once the scammer has that – they will run up your debts on your card as fast as possible.

If you get an email or text like this, do not reply.

Legitimate survey do not ask for your credit card or bank account number to pay for a “free” reward.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

June 6, 2021

Stupidest Spam of the Week Transparent Mask

This one is about coronavirus masks.

We are all used to wearing masks and/or visors of various kinds during the pandemic – from the disposables to the plain cotton to the designer expensive ones.

This latest advert is for ‘Transparent Face Masks’ which supposedly are new and taking the world by storm.

But of course, they are not new and have taken anywhere by storm.

Many people in hospitality and retail wear visors rather than masks so people can see their faces and so do some people with asthma and other breathing issues that mean they would find it difficult to wear a mask.

Some chose transparent face masks, which have been around since shortly after the pandemic took hold but have never become very popular as for most people, basic cotton feels better to wear especially for long periods.

People who live with or work with the deaf or hard of hearing, do tend to use transparent face masks as lip reading is impossible through a normal mask.

So there’s nothing new about these transparent masks but the moron sending out the mass emails tries hard with benefits such as ‘anti water’ and ‘perfect breathing’ and ‘healthy’.

Wearing masks in the days of coronavirus is certainly safer for your health but doesn’t make any difference whether the masks are transparent or not.

The sender’s email address claims to be ‘Shields’ but is in fact visisupo.casa which should be a Spanish site to do with homes not face masks, so is an obvious scam.

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