The Better Business Bureau has issued another urgent SCAM alert cautioning businesses and consumers about an email that looks like it is from the BBB with the subject line “Complaint from your Customers” or “Notice.”
This scam first materialized in 2010 but is again circulating and has evolved. It has all the markings of a bone-fide complaint by a would-be customer right down to identifying with BBB colors and wording. After receiving the email myself, I contacted the Nevada Better Business Bureau for information on the scam. The representative at the Bureau told me it was indeed a fake and that Nevada’s reference numbers begin with 900, mine started with 556.
The phishing email had the same “Better Business Bureau” heading, small lettering but in dark blue instead of yellow, then “Start With Trust” following in large white lettering – all resembling the BBB website itself. A date of Fri, 26 Oct 2012 was shown with the invalid case number and a message that read: Hello, The Better Business Bureau has been filed the above mentioned complaint from one of your customers in respect of their business relations with you. The details of the consumer’s concern are contained in enclosed document. Please give attention to this issue and inform us about your opinion as soon as possible. We kindly ask you to open the COMPLAINT REPORT (attached to the email) to reply on this complaint.
The message displayed a name entitled Dispute Counselor then Better Business Bureau towards the end of the notice. It gave the location of a Council of Better Business Bureau with an address and phone number as Arlington, VA.
Further research led me to a recent more brazen variation of the scam. It starts with “The Better Business Bureau investigation” and goes on to state that they have received several reports through the BBB online complaint center concerning several suspicious transaction from a number of private bank accounts to your corporate account. It directs the recipient to download the complaints in their online complaint center using an ensuing link. It gives a complaint ID and password number with the same contact information in Arlington, VA.
Organizations such as the Better Business Bureau do not send email of this type with attachments to businesses or consumers. There are other ways to get a complaint delivered without the chance of an email being deleted.
Another way to spot a phishing scam is in the message content. As you can see in the two complaints the grammar and spelling is suspect. Some scams originate from foreign countries and typos or grammatical errors would indicate it originated overseas.
Opening suspicious email attachments or links lend to malicious intent. They deliver malware intended to infect personal computers, spread through networks or worse, implant software designed to steal personal information such as banking and other critical information.
To check if a link is legitimate, hover over it to view its destination which will display at the bottom of the page or in a small pop-up window, but do not click on it.
The BBB has requested that recipients of the scam email the BBB at https://www.org/scam/report-a-scam/, file a complaint from the BBB website at http://www.bbb.org/us/Consumer-Complaints/ or locate your State branch through the “Find a BBB” page at http://www.bbb.org/us/find-a-bbb/.
If you have opened the attachment or clicked onto the link, necessary steps should be taken, such as scanning with reliable removal software, in order to eradicate any threats.
If you have any questions or need assistance please contact me, Peggy Pope c/o CAppTech, Computer Applications and Technology Service, at 346-6149.