If you received an email claiming to be from Better Business Bureau saying there is a complaint against you for violating a federal act, don't click anything. BBB is warning business owners and consumers of the phishing email.
According to BBB, scammers are using the BBB name and logo to fraudulently claim companies are violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Safety and Health Act, and other ominous sounding notices.
"These emails are fake. They are designed to get the recipient to click on a link, which may be used to download malware that can infect the recipient’s computer, steal passwords, or hack a company’s records. Phishing emails take all forms, and scammers regularly try to impersonate real businesses and organizations. In this case, scammers seem to be targeting a wide range of business owners, many of whom have called to tell us about this scheme," BBB's Emily Valla explained.
If you get an email that you think might be phony, look for these warning signs:
- Is the return address a real, BBB.org email address? Does the email look like regular correspondence from BBB, or is it out of the blue?
- Read the email carefully for signs that it may be fake. For example, misspellings, grammatical errors, generic greetings such as “dear member” instead of a name, etc.
- Be wary of urgent instructions to take specified action such as, “click on the link or your account will be closed.”
- Hover your mouse over links without clicking to see if the address is truly from bbb.org. The url in the text should match the url that your mouse detects. If the two do not match, it is most likely a scam.
If you do accidentally click a link or download an attachment, business owners tell BBB the download won’t come through.
"That's what prompted several to call us. They thought they were missing a legitimate complaint. If you have clicked on any of the links within the email, immediately change your email and network passwords and notify your local IT provider for next steps and actions," Valla said.
BBB recommends as general rules to protect your system, delete these phishing emails entirely. Don’t click on anything, and run anti-virus software updates frequently and do a full system scan.
For more information visit www.bbb.org.
