Sophos, a cybersecurity company, has issued a warning about a new online scam impersonating a promotional campaign from the Coca-Cola beverage company. The aim of this scam is to collect as many email addresses as possible to distribute spam.
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A portion of the fraudulent email impersonating Coca-Cola |
This scam is being disseminated as a spam email with an enticing subject line: “COCA COLA PROMOTION.” The content of this spam requests recipients to participate in a lottery promotion by Coca-Cola, offering 50 grand prizes, each valued at up to $2.5 million. To join this program, recipients are instructed to visit the accompanying website and fill out their personal information on the respective forms, then await the random drawing of 50 individuals who registered on the promotional website.
Sophos reports that this is a sophisticated method of personal information theft employed by spam gangs and cybercriminals. With the collected data, online financial fraudsters can potentially infiltrate users’ online transaction accounts to drain their available funds.
Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, along with several officials from Coca-Cola in the U.S., confirmed that such promotional emails do not originate from Coca-Cola, and the company has not organized any lottery programs as described.
Sophos advises users to immediately delete any emails containing such content and to promptly update their antivirus tools.
HOÀNG KIM ANH
