Business Bureau Warns of a New ‘Spoofing’ Scam

The Better Business Bureau issued a warning to all businesses and consumers about a “spoofing” scam using the BBB name and a false BBB e-mail address to entice recipients to access potentially damaging hyperlinks.

According to a statement released by the bureau, a Georgia company’s computer system was hacked on Wednesday, and that system is now generating counterfeit messages to businesses and consumers, purporting to be a complaint filed with the BBB.

The message includes an e-mail address that has a false return address of operations@bbb.org, and a phishing hyperlink citing a BBB complaint case number. When respondents click on the link, a file is activated that is believed to be some form of a computer virus, the bureau said.

All recipients are advised that any e-mail from the operations@bbb.org address is not coming from any BBB and should be considered counterfeit. The bureau also strongly encourages recipients of any such message to delete the message immediately without clicking on any links.

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