Surge in email scams detected by cyber-safety body Cert NZ

Monday, 11 March 2019

Email extorters often use 'tricks' to make their threats appear credible but are best reported and then ignored, says Cert NZ.

A surge in 'email extortion scams' has been detected by Government cyber-safety organisation Cert NZ.

Cert NZ director Rob Pope said such frauds usually involved attackers demanding money and making threats.

'Examples we've seen include bomb-threat emails sent to businesses through to threats of sharing embarrassing images.

'Even though it's highly unlikely these threats would be realised, they can discourage people from participating in the online environment,' he said.

* 'Good practice' would have stopped most of 700 cyber-attacks reported to Cert NZ

* Cyber-security agency CERT NZ promises it will make a 'big difference'**

The scam asks people to recruit friends for a book exchange.

In many cases fraudsters attempt to trick people into thinking they have compromised their computer and recorded compromising webcam footage or internet browsing histories.

In some cases they have attempted to boost the credibility of those claims by reciting passwords that had in fact been compromised during past data breaches.

'Although these emails can be frightening to receive, it's important to report them to Cert NZ and not contact the sender or respond to any threats made,' Cert NZ said in an advisory.

'If the scam email includes a password, make sure you change the password on any account where that password is used.'

Cert NZ was set up by the Government in 2017 to encourage the reporting of cyber-crime and to provide businesses, government agencies and individuals with advice.

It now appears to be getting a fuller picture of cyber-crime, with 1333 incidents reported to it by the public in the final quarter of last year, more than three times the number it received during the same period the previous year.

But the number of complaints it referred to the police has remained much more constant over the past 15 months, with 157 referrals during the three months to the end of December.

Complainants reported losing just under $6 million to scammers during that quarter and $14m over the year.

Some estimates for the costs of cyber-crime have run into the hundreds of millions, but these are often based on surveys that are funded by security software companies, are extrapolated from overseas data, and attempt to count indirect costs as well as actual fraud losses.