As the spread of novel coronavirus continues to make headlines globally and events such as South by Southwest are canceled, scammers are taking advantage of the news through targeted phishing emails and scam websites.
Researchers at Check Point Software Technologies Inc. said Thursday they have observed a noticeable number of new websites registered with domain names related to the virus, officially called COVID-19. More than 4,000 coronavirus-related domains were found to have been registered globally since the end of December, with 3% found to be malicious and an additional 5% suspicious.
In one example, a Russian website offers to sell “the best and fastest test for Coronavirus detection at the fantastic price of 19,000 Russian rubles (about US$300).”
Scammers are also using phishing emails to target potential victims who are interested in coronavirus news. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the number of malicious emails mentioning the virus has increased significantly since the end of January.