Email scam uses familiar businesses to trick consumers - The Denver Channel

DENVER — A new scam that's targeting businesses and consumers is popping up in personal and professional email inboxes.

The scam involves an unknown person sending an email asking for the recipient of the email to click on a provided link for what appears to be an established business’s website.

“When I clicked on that link, you could see there’s no address, there’s no phone number, there’s typos everywhere. Those are signs that it might not be a legitimate website,” said Better Business Bureau Public Relations Specialist Keylen Villagrana.

After Denver7 forwarded Villagrana an email that fit this new scam’s description, she investigated and said there are several reasons a scammer may do this.

“When a scammer sends you a link, it might be a fake lookalike website to a legitimate company and all they want is traffic to that website,” Villagrana said.

Villagrana said this hurts the business the scammer claims to represent by stealing traffic away from that business.

Villagrana said the scammer may also be phishing.

“The moment you click on that link, it could install malware onto your phone or your laptop,” Villagrana said.

Villagrana suggested using your mouse to hover over an unknown link to view the entire URL and if the URL looks suspicious, do not click on it.

She said consumers can also reach out to the BBB for help.

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