Important information and warning: fraudulent messages

Alerte emails frauduleux

Fraudulent emails have been widely circulated, in an untargeted manner, from different email addresses, in some cases eluding email providers’ anti-spam filters.

 This is a malicious phishing email campaign aimed at defrauding potential victims who respond to the message.

These fraudulent emails, which are poorly phrased, inform recipients that they have allegedly been implicated in proceedings. They ask recipients to open an attached PDF document, and to send a response by email.

This fake summons mentions alleged “criminal proceedings for incidents of a sexual nature” brought against the recipient of the message.

• Recipients of this message should:

-          NOT RESPOND TO THE SENDER

-          Not open the PDF document

-          Forward the email received to cyber@gouv.mc

-          Report the email and/or the sender as spam

-          Once reported, permanently delete the message from their mailbox

• More generally, please note that:

-          No Monegasque institution would send such a summons.

-          The only email addresses used by government departments are in the following format: xxxx@gouv.mc

-          Users should not trust the sender’s title, which can be chosen at will by the message author, or the subject of the message.

-          The sender’s real email address should be checked by holding your finger on the <sender> field (on a smartphone) or right-clicking on it (on a PC).

-          Certain email addresses are specially created to look like legitimate addresses with just a tiny detail changed, such as replacing the letter (i) by the letter (l), or adding a full stop (.) or other character to generate confusion.