Home workers are receiving bogus texts and emails claiming to be from the Microsoft platform, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is warning. One message claims to be from “Zoom Mail” which informs the recipient that a “Zoom voicemail” has been received and that they should call a premium rate number that the message claims costs “£6 plus std net rate”.
Another message, sent via email, pretends to be a Zoom conference call invitation that asks the recipient to click a link to “review invitation”. The link then leads to a fake login page which asks the recipient to put in their username and password, sending the information to scammers.
CTSI Lead Officer Katherine Hart said: “Everyone receiving messages like these should take precautions. A legitimate message will never ask you to pay money to access voicemails, and messages received outside of the specified platform should always be treated with healthy suspicion.
“This type of scam is by no means limited to the Zoom platform, and the public should apply the same precautions to all. If you receive these kinds of emails, report them to the National Cyber Security Centre [NCSC] and your organisation’s Head of IT.”
Trading Standards suggests that the public and businesses join Friends Against Scams and Businesses Against Scams, respectively.
