Cyber criminals are always looking for vulnerabilities, and in this case, it’s parental instinct. A new phishing scam is disguised as an alert to child sexual predators.
The scam email looks like a warning for parents about a known predator who moved into their ZIP code area. In a blog post by IT security company KnowBe4, CEO Stu Sjouwerman exclaimed, “just when you think phishing criminals cannot sink any further, you get confronted with a ‘new low.’”
What was really interesting to me is that I received two emails back to back: One was from KnowBe4 PR contacting me about this story, and the one immediately afterward was one of the phishing emails Sjouwerman described.
It appeared to be from “Family Safety Notice_Kids*Live*Safe, and the subject line was: “Public Notice, A Sex Offender Alert For Your Area.” The message itself was relatively brief and to the point. It just stated that a child predator may reside in our neighborhood, and provided a link to check for child predators in our area. It was signed by Paul Johnson, “Child Safety-Officer.” Seems legit.