Phishing mail circulates on the internet: fake alderman accuses child pornography

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The email gets straight to the point. The first paragraph says, “We will take legal action against you.” It was about “child pornography – pedophilia – exhibitionism – cyber pornography”. The recipient is asked to answer within 48 hours. Otherwise, the court will be called in and an arrest warrant will be issued, which will lead to immediate arrest. You will then be included in the national register of sex offenders and the file will be forwarded to the media.

Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (59) is said to have ordered it. But none of this is true, as the Tamedia newspapers made public. The signature of the Federal Councilor is fictitious, as are the allegations.

Scammers want to blackmail

The email is a phishing attack. Criminals use false information to pretend to be trustworthy. The scammers intend to get their hands on personal information. Anyone who opens a link or downloads file attachments is at risk of installing malware. Therefore, those affected may not respond to the email under any circumstances. Responding to the senders is also not recommended. This way the scammers could find out who could be blackmailed. It is best to delete the email and block the sender address.

Phishing emails can look deceptively real, but usually contain flaws that expose them. For example, in the current case, the Swiss National Center for Cyber ​​Security (NCSC) is specified as the sender. He reports to Federal Council member Viola Amherd (61) and not to her colleague Elisabeth Baume-Schneider. The email also contains numerous spelling errors and can therefore be identified as a forgery.

Other positions affected

The NCSC issues warnings on its official website. He writes that phishing emails are currently circulating in the name of SBB or the Swiss Pass. In addition, cybersecurity experts generally refer to fake news that should come from authorities. However, according to the NCSC, there has been no increase in phishing emails related to the latest hacker attack, the Tamedia newspapers write. This refers to the Xplain incident. Hackers had stolen thousands of federal and cantonal data from the IT service provider and published it on the dark web. Among them are even personal details from a list of hooligans.

Clap for the Bund

The data breach is a disaster for the authorities. Because the federal government actually wants to gain the confidence of the population for new digital offerings. Federal Councilor Alain Berset (51) recently announced the introduction of the electronic patient file. In the future it should also be possible to vote via e-voting. The plan was for two-thirds of cantons to be able to vote electronically online by the time of the 2019 elections. But the project was halted due to security issues.

Another venture is the digital identity card. In 2021, Swiss voters said no to this because of data protection concerns. Nevertheless, then Minister of Justice Karin Keller-Suter (59) decided to promote the E-ID. However, there is no concrete bill yet. (rba)

Source:Blick