Watch out for convincing Microsoft Teams phishing scams

Scammers are using the increased popularity of the Microsoft Teams software to launch a series of highly convincing email phishing scams aimed at stealing users’ Office 365 login details.

Since the start of the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of software that lets people and businesses connect remotely like Microsoft Teams has skyrocketed. And cyber crooks are taking advantage of that.

Security companies are reporting a sudden spike in email phishing scams aimed at those who use Microsoft Teams in order to steal their passwords.

There are two reasons why these new Microsoft Teams phishing campaigns are particularly convincing.

1. As we stated above, because of the increased popularity and usage of the Microsoft Teams, users are receiving plenty of legitimate emails from Teams in their inboxes, such as notification emails when users share files or send messages. This means that a bogus email from crooks that looks like it’s been sent from the Teams software is more likely to catch a recipient off guard.

2. The emails themselves are particularly well crafted. Crooks have copied the imagery and text from genuine Microsoft Teams notification emails and almost perfectly duplicated them, so the resulting scam email is a near carbon copy of a real Teams email. This means some of the usual giveaways, such as poor or out-dated design, bad spelling and poor grammar aren’t there to tip a recipient off.

The scam phishing emails may claim that the recipient has files waiting to be downloaded or has unread chat messages ready to be seen. The wording will be exactly the same as they are in real Microsoft Teams notification emails.

The emails contain links that, when clicked on, will lead to a spoof Office 365 login page, asking for the user’s username and password.

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When the user enters their login details, those details are then sent straight to scammers who can then access that Office 365 account (if the user doesn’t use two factor authentication on their Office 365 account, that is.)

It is scam campaigns like this that are the reason why we should all avoid clicking on links in emails. Instead, open a website (or app) directly instead of using the often enticing shortcut of a link on an email.

And if you do click on a link, before you do anything else, pay attention to the web address at the top. If it looks suspicious, you don’t recognise the address or you’re just not sure, close it down.

Read here for more information on phishing scams and how they work.