As more and more consumers are aware of phishing attacks that appear to come from banks and other financial institutions, phishers are changing their tactics. Kate MacArthur of AdAge.com reports that phishing attacks are no longer limited to banking, online-retail and other transaction-based brands and targeted individual customer accounts. Rather, these attacks are now using brand names like Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz to lure customers to fraudulent Web sites.

For example, a recent e-mail signed by a Hong Kong-based Coca-Cola sales and marketing manager promised a Mercedes-Benz ML Jeep convertible and a chance at $800,000 cash for entries submitted to a link in the e-mail. Another one from McDonald’s Corp. and JPMorgan Chase offered a 50% discount at McDonald’s over 10 days, followed by a 30% discount thereafter if recipients signed up at a JPMorgan Chase-branded promotional site.

According to MacArthur: “These offers didn’t signify aggressive interactive-marketing efforts. They were “phishing” expeditions. And the first clue might have been that there is no such car as a Mercedes-Benz ML Jeep convertible.”

As phishers increasingly use trusted brands as bait, it is important to be wary of emails that use promotions, giveaways and sweepstakes to lure you in. Coca-Cola warns consumers: “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 11:49 am and is filed under ID Theft Prevention, Phishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.