14 DAY TRIAL // Verizon Wireless customers are advised to be cautious in case they come across an email titled “Data Usage Overage Alert” in their inbox.
The notifications appear to come from the telecoms company, but in reality they’re part of a cybercriminal scheme designed to distribute malware.
The emails, identified by Conrad Longmore of Dynamoo’s Blog, read something like this:
“Important Information About Your Data Usage
Your account has used your data allowance for this month and you may now be billed overage charges. Your monthly data allowance will reset on the 20th. Run an Account Analysis in My Verizon to analyze your recent months' data usage and review your plan options.
Don't forget, you can also manage your alert settings in My Verizon including adding recipients and opting out of specific alerts.
Thank you for choosing Verizon Wireless.”
The link from the email takes users to a malware serving website hosted on verizonwirelessreports (dot) com, a fake Verizon domain registered recently.
Last year, several Verizon Wireless customers started complaining about an “overage alert/data usage” bug. It’s likely that this is how the cybercriminals came up with the idea to send these bogus emails. Beware!