Irish Government Emails Used in Latest PayPal Phishing Scam — Scammers are targeting your inbox with “Your Account Will Be Limited” phishing scam with terrible English skills!
Cybercriminals and scammers try their best to adopt the most sophisticated techniques so users can be tricked into giving away their personal and financial information. In the past, we witnessed such elements using government-issued emails and websites to harvest such scams.
Now, another phishing scam is targeting PayPal users and the email address used in this scam belongs to the Government of Ireland. Usually, scam emails such as these would be ignored as they often land in users’ junk mailbox but due to this being a government based email address, the email has been landing straight into users’ inbox which is quite a threat to those who are not familiar with such scams.
Essentially what is happening is, users are receiving an email from an address supposedly from the Irish government portal address “[email protected]” with a warning message that “Your Account Will Be Limited!.” Scammers are referring to PayPal accounts which are, of course, bogus. The email further informs users that they need to contact PayPal to remove the limitation. In order to restore the account, they need to click on a link given in the email body.
Must Read: ‘Payment Reversal’ Another PayPal Phishing Scam Targeting Customers
Those who read emails thoroughly will notice the poor use of the English language by the sender where rather than writing “hear” they have used the word “here” and that should be enough to suspect the email is nothing but a scam. However, those who don’t notice may click the ”update account” link which further asks for their login email and password. Once putting the info it will be delivered to the scammers behind the email and you may lose access to your PayPal account and the funds within.
Good news is that if you are using Google Chrome it already prevents users from accessing the site which hosts the so-called update link and has listed it as a phishing scam.
Must Read: Facebook Users Hit with ‘Your Account Will Be Disabled’ Message Phishing Scam
If you proceed to the unsafe site, it shows the phishing page has been deleted from the site, either way, it is a win-win situation but remember never to click links in an unknown email. In the case of PayPal, it is safe and advisable to log in your PayPal account by entering the web address into your browser’s address bar or via an official PayPal app. The PayPal website has a verified green signature as shown in the screenshot below:
Articles Updated: 11:47 PM Monday, June 27, 2016 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
While it was reported earlier that the phishing page was detected and deleted we have now witnessed a rapid increase in emails coming to users’ inbox from the same government email with a new and working link. Here are additional screenshots from latest emails targeting users:
Upon clicking the malicious link, users are redirected to this page and asked for their PayPal email and password details which are then sent to criminals behind this scam:
To trick users into thinking that the process is legit cyber criminals ask to fill a form with personal information as shown in the screenshot below:
Once you click ”next” another page will load with a ”success” message claiming that your account access has been fully restored but in reality, scammers have now received your PayPal email and password:
Watch out for this scam and DON’T for it!
![Child sexual abuse is a burning issue right now. It's a sad reality that people are forcing innocent kids to participate in torturous sexual acts to make money. Thankfully, the tech community is working towards eliminating this social evil. [wp_ad_camp_4] Reportedly, Apple will be launching a new machine learning-based system to be released later this year as part of the upcoming versions of iOS and iPadOS to ensure enhanced child safety. The system will scan iPhones across the USA to detect the presence of child sexual abuse images. Moreover, the messages app in iPhones will issue a warning whenever a child part of iCloud Family receives or tries to send sexually explicit images. About the New CSAM System Apple has developed a system dubbed neuralMatch to located child sexual abuse material/CSAM, and it will scan US customers' devices. The system will be launched soon amidst reservations from the cybersecurity fraternity as they claim authoritative governments could misuse the system to perform surveillance on their citizens. However, Apple claims that the system is a new "application of cryptography" to limit the distribution of CSAM online without impacting user privacy. How NeuralMatch Works? The new system will find matches for already known/available CSAM before storing an image in iCloud Photos. If a match is found, a human reviewer will conduct a thorough assessment and notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about that user, and the account will be disabled. "This innovative new technology allows Apple to provide valuable and actionable information to NCMEC and law enforcement regarding the proliferation of known CSAM," Apple noted. [wp_ad_camp_4] "Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the known CSAM hashes," and the system has "extremely high level of accuracy and ensures less than a one in one trillion chance per year of incorrectly flagging a given account," the company wrote. Could It be Exploited? Critics of this system have raised concerns that this technology might be expanded for scanning phones for banned/prohibited content or political views/speech. In addition to this, Apple is planning to scan users' encrypted messages to locate sexually explicit content as a separate child safety measure. It is worth noting that the detection system will flag images of child pornography already present in the center's database. So, parents need not worry about it. According to John Hopkins University's top cryptography researcher, Matthew Green, this system can be used to target and trap innocent people by sending them objectionable images to trigger a match with child porn images. Apple's algorithm could be fooled easily, and anyone could be framed because such systems are easily tricked. "Researchers have been able to do this pretty easily. What happens when the Chinese government says, 'Here is a list of files that we want you to scan for… Does Apple say no? I hope they say no, but their technology won't say no," Green stated. [wp_ad_camp_4] Did you enjoy reading this article? Like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.](https://www.hackread.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/apple-scan-us-iphones-for-child-sexual-abuse-content.jpg)
