Avast Blog Tips & Advices: Watch out for these “Brexit” scams

[harlan4096]

Phishers and other scammers are using Brexit as bait — don’t get caught in their net.

Brexit 2019 email virus

With the Brexit date fast approaching, uncertainty, speculation, and fear swirl around as no one really knows what to expect. Unfortunately, there will always be scammers who take advantage of uncertainty to rip off innocent people.

Recently, this took the form of the Brexit Email Virus. This email came around, titled Brexit 2019.

The email looks official, and prompts people to stay up-to-date on Brexit votes and to watch currency fluctuations. Anyone who clicked the “Latest Brexit Update” button actually downloaded Ursnif, a Trojan virus. Ursnif records a ton of sensitive information, including usernames and passwords for banks, social media accounts, and email. If you accidentally downloaded it, you should remove it ASAP before your sensitive data gets into the wrong hands.

Will the government protect you?

While spreading computer viruses is, of course, illegal, hackers can be hard to catch. The European Union has certain laws governing IT security and privacy, which up until now have covered the United Kingdom, too. It’s not yet known exactly how the UK will adapt these laws after Brexit (at the time of this writing, an agreement has yet to be reached between the EU and UK that fully spells out post-Brexit plans).

Britain prepares its citizens for Brexit...

The British government has released a series of documents that advise citizens on what they should do about various aspects of post-EU life, such as work, environment, transport, and education. They even go into fascinating detail about some topics, including how to bring donkeys abroad, the purebred breeding of pigs, and pet passports for traveling to the EU with your ferret. (Yes, really.)

Continue Reading