16 Top Brands That Scammers Target for Brand Impersonation Attacks

Cybercriminals use every trick in the book to scam businesses. One of the most common online scams that popular brands are especially vulnerable to is a brand impersonation phishing attack!

Phishing is a cyber attack that use emails as a weapon to trick the target. The target is made to believe that the message is from a trusted source and prompted to click on a link or to download an attachment that has malicious content in it.

According to Google Transparency Report 2018, the number of phishing sites detected per week has increased drastically from 3800 in Nov 2007 to 49696 in Nov 2017.

What is Brand Impersonation?

Brand Impersonation is a form of phishing attack where the attacker pretends to be from a trusted brand/company to send out emails that contain malicious content. These emails could resemble a well-known bank, credit card company, an e-commerce portal, or even a government agency.

The aim of a brand impersonation attack is to gain confidential data of the targeted victim.

Motive of Hackers

Some of the most common reasons for a brand impersonation attack are:

• Using the target’s login credentials to access financial details as well as to initiate fund transfers.
• Stealing personal information like address or phone number to sell it to others.
• Ruining the customer’s trust on the service provider by charging them with false dues.

How Do Hackers Impersonate A Brand?

• Source forgery

Source forgery refers to the process of faking the ‘From’ address in an email. Hackers can easily manipulate the ‘From’ address in an email to make it look genuine. This can be done by using SMTP services and other online tools (like Kali-Linux).

• Links

Brand impersonation phishing attacks will have links embedded in the email that’s designed to look reliable so that the potential target clicks on them. To make these links look genuine, hackers create false references. This can be done by using the <a href> of the webpage.

Usually, the attackers fake a company/brand website by using the following HTML code in their email:

In the above example, clicking on https://support.google.com will take the user to http://passinest.com.
<a href> of the received email can be checked by the following steps :

• Open the received email without clicking on any link.
• Right-click anywhere in the email to see the options.
• Select ‘Inspect’ to see the inspection view of the email.

• Lookalike domains

Hackers buy domains that look similar to the domain of a known brand. This makes it easier for the hackers to carry out brand impersonation attacks.

For example, the below image shows the domain names available in GoDaddy, that is similar to FedEx.

A hacker is most likely to use fedexcare.com to fake “FedEx Cares” website (fedexcares.com) which is an official FedEx website.

We have analyzed a list of brands that are popular among scammers for carrying out brand impersonation attacks.

1. Netflix Scam

Brands like Netflix have a higher risk of brand impersonation attacks because they have millions of subscribers worldwide.

Here is one such Netflix scam targeting its customers.

This Netflix email scam came to light when non-subscribers of Netflix started receiving such emails. Once the attack got reported, Netflix immediately issued a warning, urging its customers not to do any payment through such links.

But the attackers didn’t stop here!

A recently discovered Netflix email scam shows that the hackers are now targeting the legitimacy of the website. This is done by using Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates.

2. Bank of America Phishing

Emails sent by banks are always on the top of everyone’s priority list and that’s why they are always targeted by scammers.

Here is an example of a phishing attack targeting Bank of America.

In the image below you can observe,
Signs of green flags:

• Bank of America’s logo and address
• Look-alike link
• Signature and reference
• Terms and Condition

Signs of red flags:

• A sense of urgency
• Common salutation
• Warning of account suspension
• Fake link – mouseover to see the original link

Partner organizations of brands that are being targeted through phishing attacks face higher risks because these attacks can initiate a chain of cyber attacks that eventually target the partners as well.

3. LinkedIn Phishing

In December 2017, a number of LinkedIn users received messages that had a malicious link in it. On clicking the link, users were taken to a fake Dropbox login page that asked for login credentials. Apparently, all the LinkedIn accounts sending out these malicious messages were hacked.

Isn’t it scary?

LinkedIn has around 546 million users worldwide. Even if 10% of users are targeted with such LinkedIn phishing email, 5.4 million users will be at risk.

Signs of green flags:

• Personalized email
• Genuine logo usage
• Unsubscribe option – similar to the original LinkedIn emails

Signs of red flags:

• Irrelevant suggested connections
• Action to click over a link to follow or DM
• Non-LinkedIn links
• Not from “messages-noreply@linkedin.com” sender address

Such attacks can have the following effects:

• LinkedIn holds your professional identity which can be used for IDENTITY FRAUD.
• Professionals do maintain their LinkedIn ID with their business account. Hence, LinkedIn phishing attacks can result in DATA BREACHES.

4. PayPal Phishing

In December 2017, a number of people received a PayPal phishing email.

PayPal logo with the sender domain as service@paypal.com convinced many customers to click on the link to see the transaction details.

This attack was planned to acquire PayPal customer data such as:

• Name, street address, city, state, zip, country, phone number, mother’s maiden name, and date of birth.
• Credit card information (name, number, expiration code, security code).

Signs of green flags:

• PayPal logo
• PayPal email structure
• Use of regular PayPal email font

Signs of red flags:

• A sense of urgency
• Asking to download an attachment
• Unauthorised access notification
• ‘PayPal’ written as ‘Paypal’ (Some phishing emails)
• Asking to fill an attached form

5. Google Docs Phishing

In May 2017, millions of Gmail users received a Google Docs phishing email. Once the user clicks on the link, they were directed to the following page:

Since Gmail is a trusted brand, no one actually reads the “Permission Settings” before clicking on the “Allow” button. Hackers used this to their advantage and created a fake page to get access to user’s emails and contacts.

1.2 million Gmail users were affected by this attack. Here is an official statement from Google on this attack.

Signs of green flags:

• Google logo
• Use of similar email structure
• Specific salutation

Signs of red flags:

• Immediate action
• Asking for access permissions

6. Amazon Phishing

Scammers impersonate E-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay to fraudulently access customer’s credit card details.

For example, an elderly couple received an Amazon phishing emailon June 2018. In the email, they were asked to confirm their account details, by clicking on a link. Once the hackers got the login credentials, they placed an order from the couple’s Amazon account. Initially, both the bank and Amazon refused to refund the couple for the fraudulent transaction. It was only after verifying the IP address and order details that the bank decided to refund them the money.

Signs of green flags:

• Amazon logo used along with the order description
• Use of regular Amazon email structure

Signs of red flags:

• Immediate action
• A sense of urgency

7. Telstra Phishing

Telstra is an Australian telecom brand that was impersonated to target a large number of their customers.

This attack was so sophisticated that it was difficult to differentiate between the original and fake Telstra Email Bill.

Signs of red flags:

• Recipient’s Telstra account number was missing from the subject line
• Common salutation ‘Dear Customer’
• Hackers used “www.my-Telstra-com-au“ to fake the real site “www.my.telstra.com.au”

The primary motive behind this attack was to get the following details:

• Credit card information
• Billing address
• Date of birth, driver’s license number and, mother’s maiden name

8. Facebook Phishing

Cybercriminals use social media to target a large number of people. With Facebook phishing attacks, one can target up to 2.19 billion people!

Fake Facebook login pages are the first step towards launching a Facebook phishing scam.

The below example shows a fake Facebook login page that’s used for phishing:

Now the question is “Is it very easy to create a fake Facebook login page?”
The answer is YES! If you search ‘Facebook phishing page’ on Google, you will get the following results:

9. Wells Fargo Phishing

Wells Fargo is an American bank with over 70 million accounts. Recently, people were targeted with a Wells Fargo phishing email that said, “We have Updated Your Contact Information”.

According to Wells Fargo policies, customers had to update their personal information periodically and hence, this email actually made sense to them.

Signs of red flags:

• Account number was missing from the subject line
• Use of ‘Common salutation’ instead of ‘Dear <name>’
• The changes were not displayed in the email. Instead, the attackers asked the customers to log in to their account to view the changes

The motive of this Wells Fargo phishing attack was to gather:

• Customer login credentials
• Transaction details
• Personal details

10. Apple Phishing

For Apple users, all their data is stored in their iCloud account by default. The scammer sends out threatening Apple phishing emails to its customers warning them about their account suspension.

One such email is shown below:

Red Flags to be noted here are:

• Apple ID was not mentioned in the email
• A sense of urgency
• Call to action that leads to a phishing page
• Apple support link was not embedded in the email

11. Dropbox Phishing

Hackers copy the Dropbox logo into their emails to add authenticity to the scams.

One such Dropbox phishing email is shown below where the potential target is asked to access the files sent via Dropbox.

On clicking “Access File Here” link, a malicious file is downloaded into their system.

This above image shows how a genuine Dropbox email will look like.
Signs of green flags:

• Email is from “no-reply@dropbox.com”
• Dropbox logo
• File name with sender details
• Dropbox team signature

Signs of red flags:

• Dropbox text icon
• No file details
• No file owner details
• Link to access the file

12. Yahoo Scam

Yahoo! has around 350 million active subscribers and scammers love targeting Yahoo!.
For example, in the below image you can see a “Yahoo Account Disabled” email.

Signs of red flags:

• The email is marked to 50 people
• There is a warning to delete the account along with emails, contacts and other data
• The “Sign in and verify it” link, points to a phishing site

Remember: Your bank, credit card company or email service provider will never loop you into a group email. They will only communicate with you through personal email.

13. Microsoft Phishing

Recently in a Microsoft Outlook phishing scam spotted in the UK, users were attacked by an email that said:

On clicking the reset link, users were redirected to a fake Outlook login page. On entering the credentials, an error message shows up and the hacker now has your credentials.

14. Chase Fraud

JPMorgan Chase is a well-established American investment bank and financial services company. In a recent cyber attack, scammers targeted Chase customers with an email that read:

This Chase fraud email urged the customers to do a security update. The “SECURITY UPDATE” button was enabled with a fake link that was designed to fetch the victim’s Chase bank account credentials.

15. Comcast Scam

Comcast has a customer base of around 22 million subscribers.

In 2017, they were attacked by brand impersonating emails, where the subscribers were asked to unlock their account through a link.

In this Comcast phishing email, the “Unlock” link redirects the subscribers to a malicious site that mimics Comcast (Xfinity) login page. This is done to collect user credentials.

In another Comcast phishing attack, scammers tried to fake the “Xfinity Billing Email”. Here the hackers used a proper credit card and billing template along with a proper invoice number.

On clicking on the link, the users will be taken to a fake Comcast login page.

16. AT&T Phishing

AT&T is a popular choice for brand impersonation attacks.

The above AT&T phishing email says,

Signs of red flags:

• Bad grammar
• Common salutation “<Dear Valued Customer>”
• Source of email “<hangfung_indco@hotmail.com>”

Other similar attacks impersonating AT&T are designed to alert potential victims about pending dues and warning them about account shut down.

How can Brands Protect Themselves and Their Customers?

Brand empowers a business!

It takes years to establish a brand and to build trust among its customers.

The reputation of the organization relies on the brand. Once the customer is attacked by brand impersonation email, the customer’s trust on the brand is lost forever.

“Hacking of customer data could cause 80% of consumers to abandon your brand”

Moreover, it also affects market reputation directly impacting brand equity

Understanding Brand Impersonation

Having an understanding of brand impersonation attacks is the first step in stopping these attacks from succeeding. Here is a snapshot of some of the key aspects of a typical brand impersonation attack.

Secure Internal Process

Securing internal processes will help in preventing leakage of crucial information including email addresses that can be used for phishing attacks.
This can be done by:

• Restrict database access to authorized users/employees only. This helps in reducing the chances of infection by brand impersonation attacks.
• Create awareness among the employees handling customer data. They should be aware of confidentiality requirements and risks of data breach.
• Any brand impersonation email should be identified and reported.
• Encrypt sensitive information when it is transmitted electronically over networks or stored online. Data encryption is always a safer and better way to transmit the data.
• Implement anti-phishing software solutions.

Customer/Employee Awareness

It is essential that organizations create awareness about phishing attacks among its employees and leverage technology to prevent such attacks.

Educating customers to help them identify and report phishing attacks should be a key action item in an organization’s strategy in preventing brand impersonation.

Here are few best practices that employees should be made aware of:

1. First, when something seems too good to be true, always suspect it.
2. Second, social media has its own way of marking the ‘verified’ brands. Communicate with ‘verified’ brands only.
3. Third, look for grammar mistakes. Fraudsters are really not good with grammar.

When you are dealing with brands over email, remember the following points:

• No online service provider will ever ask you to provide your username, password, credit card number, full name, bank account number etc through emails.
• Genuine emails will not contain any embedded links in it. They will never ask the users to fill information in forms.
• They will never ask the user to download software programs from other sites or ask them to go to other sites apart from a known business site.
• You should always visit the website by directly typing the address in the browser.
• You should be suspicious of any email that has urgent requests for your personal information.

Interested in finding out actionable techniques to stop phishing attacks? Click here.