LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)- With many employees working from home because of the global pandemic, scammers are now using Zoom to steal your personal information. The popular video conferencing platform Zoom has seen usage grow exponentially in 2020.
Naturally, this has attracted the attention of hackers and scammers.
“A lot of consumers are using Zoom not only for work-related things but for personal things by having to limit our contact in person,” Chris Babin, with the Better Business Bureau of Acadiana, said. “A lot of family members are choosing to visit with other family members on Zoom, and scammers are looking at that as a big opportunity to steal our information or possibly download some type of malware of virus on our computers.”
With a huge consumer base to target through Zoom, con-artists are using old tricks to use Zoom scams to try to steal personal information.
“Scammers are basically sending emails, text messages, just to any email or phone number they can find claiming to be with Zoom. It’s not hard to find their logo,” explained Babin. “Scammers are contacting consumers pretending as though they’re with Zoom, and they need them to click on this link whether it says to unlock your account because it’s been locked or you recently missed a video call that you should’ve been on… click on this link to see what call you should’ve been on.”
These links can download malware onto your computer or lead you to a page where you are prompted to enter your login information. Entering your username and password gives scammers access to your account and any other account that uses a similar login and password combination.
Babin explained, “What we know is zoom.com and zoom.us are the only two accurate URL’s for Zoom, and we know that scammers have created a whole bunch of fake email addresses that have the word Zoom in them somewhere and even fake websites that have the word Zoom in there somewhere to hopefully entice consumers to think that they’re actually signing into their actual Zoom account, when it’s the scammers’ fake account that they’ve created to steal your information.”
News 10 reached out to Zoom about this type of phishing scam.
A company spokesperson said this: “Zoom takes security very seriously. Since phishing emails often try to appear to be from known companies, we encourage users of all platforms to be extra cautious around emails from outside parties. Common signs of phishing emails include errors within the text, an incorrect sender’s email address, or malicious links or attachments. We recommend users report all phishing emails to the U.S. Anti-Phishing Working Group at phishing-report-@us-cert.gov.”
According to the Better Business Bureau, here’s how you can avoid phishing scams like this one:
- Double check the sender’s information. Zoom.com and zoom.us are the only official domains for Zoom.
- Never click on links in unsolicited emails. This can potentially lead to malware being downloaded on your computer.
- Resolve issues directly by contacting the company if you receive an email stating there is a problem with your account.
If you have a scam you’d like me to investigate, feel free to send me an email at smasters@klfy.com.
