Cybercriminals are making a comeback in the now ten-year European Union business register scam that is once again targeting thousands of companies and organizations around the world. The 2022 version of the scam, detected by Bitdefender Antispam Lab researchers for a few days, has spread to North America, Europe and Asia with particular peaks in the United States (24%), Ireland (26%), Sweden (18%) Denmark (14%), Romania, the United Kingdom and Germany (2%). Fortunately, Italy was only minimally affected (1%).
Companies receive an email inviting them to enter their company in a fictitious EU register “for free”. The registration is made by the unfortunate person in a PDF form that asks for information on the type of business, name, address, telephone number and email. But the small text at the end of the document hides the cybercriminals’ real intent: a three-year agreement that obliges the company to pay the sum of 995 euros per year as a registration fee in the data register. Anyone who does not read the information contained in the final box and signs the contract immediately receives the invoice for the payment of the first installment.
In addition to having analyzed data that could be used to hit the company. The European Business Registry Association has also issued a notice to clarify that there is no relationship between them and the Eu Business Register association sending the scam email. “The best course of action for companies threatened by this type of scam is to immediately ignore and delete this or any other similar email,” explain researchers at Bitdefender Antispam Lab.
Source: Ansa
I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years now and I have worked for some of the biggest news websites in the world. My focus has always been on entertainment news, but I also cover a range of other topics. I am currently an author at Global happenings and I love writing about all things pop-culture related.
