E-mail @gov.br is used by cybercriminals; Careful!

Although Brazil is a country with a high crime rate, we are still surprised by the tricks of some criminals. What is new is the use of the @gov.br e-mail for the application of virtual scams with government control. In this case, hackers saw the possibility of using the email platform to deceive those who believe that @gov.br is synonymous with official. In this way, the bandits apply blows by impersonating official bodies of the Federal Government.

Read more: Microsoft alert makes users aware of the wave of virtual attacks that seek to spy on emails.

Understand how the virtual coup works

Virtual scams are being applied through an email modality called "phishing", which is intended to deceive users. Generally, phishing emails are sent by criminals impersonating users' banks. However, in this case, the email is sent as if it were from one of the official government agencies. In this way, they use the @gov.br domain, which is similar to the official websites, to convey more credibility.

Furthermore, the email follows the same characteristic common to phishing emails, which is to direct the user to a link responsible for installing malware. So criminals can gain access to important data from the cell phone or computer through which the link was accessed.

How to avoid falling into phishing?

To escape scammers, you need to be very careful when reading any email that arrives in your inbox. For example, phishing emails often contain mistakes in Portuguese that are certainly more difficult.

Also, you need to be aware of how the email address was entered. One of the users who received a phishing email noticed that the criminal reversed the name of the Superior Court of Justice, typing tribunalsuperiordejustiç[email protected]. Probably, the e-mail with the correct order from the STJ court was already occupied by the official e-mail. Finally, always be aware of the content you are going to click on, and whenever possible choose to view a document before downloading it.