Kaspersky Lab finds cybercriminals offering free flights and hotels to trap tourists into sharing financial information
Woburn, MA – May 29, 2019 –Kaspersky Lab researchers tracking the activity of malicious spammers and phishers have uncovered multiple operations seeking to exploit people’s desire to secure a bargain during the summer travel season. The researchers found more than 8,000 phishing attacks disguised as offers from popular lodging platforms, as well as several email blasts appearing to come from a legitimate travel brand that signed victims up to paid phone services
Spam and phishing are among the most effective attack vectors for cybercriminals, using social engineering to manipulate and exploit human behavior. These campaigns are often highly convincing, with attackers using fake sites that are almost identical to the legitimate version, and which easily trick victims into handing over bank card details or paying for a product or service that does not exist.
In the space of just one day (May 21), researchers detected seven different email blasts disguised as offers from popular booking platforms for airplane tickets and accommodations. Three of these emails appeared to offer free flights in return for completing a short online survey and sharing the link with others. After three questions, users were asked to enter their phone number, which the fraudsters then used to subscribe the victim to paid mobile services.
Kaspersky Lab also detected phishing attacks circulating between late April and May, disguised as popular websites for booking rental accommodations, including Airbnb (7,917 attacks). In one instance, fraudsters created a phishing page that closely resembled the legitimate Airbnb platform, and pretended to offer victims cheap city-center accommodations with high review scores. Once the victim confirmed the booking and transferred the money, the fraudster and the offer disappeared.
Example of a phishing web page copying an authentic website
“Late spring and early summer are a popular time for scammers, as they exploit people looking for a bargain or a last-minute holiday booking,” said Andrey Kostin, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab. “Not only are the fraudulent websites and offers increasingly convincing, more people than ever are booking flights and accommodation on mobile devices, where it can be harder to spot a fake link. These two trends leave travelers vulnerable to attack. We urge people to use only legitimate websites for booking tickets and accommodation and to make sure they are protected by a security solution with a strong spam and phishing filter that will spot fraudulent approaches before they get to you.”
Kaspersky Lab recommends the following security measures to avoid falling into spammers’ and phishers’ traps:
- Carefully look at the address bar of a website before entering any sensitive information. If something is wrong with the URL (it’s misspelled, doesn’t look like the original or uses special symbols instead of letters), don’t enter any personal details.
- Book your stay and tickets only on the official websites of trusted providers, ideally typing the address of their website manually in the address bar.
- Don’t click on links coming from unknown sources (in e-mails, messengers or social networks).
- If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Use a security solution with behavior-based anti-phishing technologies, such as Kaspersky Security Cloudor Kaspersky Total Security, which will warn you if you are trying to visit a phishing web page.
To learn more about the latest travel scams uncovered by Kaspersky Lab researchers, visit our blog.
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company, which has been operating in the market for over 21 years. Kaspersky Lab’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into next generation security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at usa.kaspersky.com.
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