Think this is the first time I received a spam email in a language other than English.  I guess that would mean that the English speaking population is now getting used to detecting fraudulent emails and its time to move to the next biggest population – those that speak French!

Cher(e) client(e),
Un courrier vous a récemment été envoyé afin de vous présenter notre service de sécurité de vos paiements par carte sur Internet.
Ce service d’authentification vous demande de valider vos paiements en ligne par la saisie d’un code de confirmation à usage unique reçu par téléphone.
Pour pouvoir en bénéficier, pensez à activer votre numéro de mobile sur internet !
Comment activer votre numéro de mobile ?

1 . Télécharger le Document ci-joint et l’ouvrir dans un navigateur.
2 . Renseignez votre numéro de mobile
3 . Vous recevrez votre code d’activation par courrier !

Merci de votre confiance,
Votre Service Client La Banque Postale.

The spam email translates to this. 

Dear Client, 

A letter was recently sent to you to present our security service for your card payments on the Internet. 
This authentication service asks you to validate your online payments by entering a one-time confirmation code received by telephone. 
To benefit from it, remember to activate your mobile number on the internet! 
How to activate your mobile number? 
1. Download the attached Document and open it in a browser. 
2. Enter your mobile number 
3. You will receive your activation code by mail! Thank you for your confidence, Your La Banque Postale Customer Service.

What to do if you fall victim of a spam email?

Spam email or phishing email is one of the most common ways cyber-attacks happen. Email scams are a serious threat, and if you’re the victim of an email scam, you must act quickly to help protect yourself against identity theft.

Here are some of the important steps to take.

Contact IT Support

First of all disconnect from the Internet, but don’t turn your computer off as this risks losing useful information. The second step is to contact the company’s IT department.

IT support most probably will scan your systems. Most importantly you should not do anything on the computer while you wait for the IT support to fix the problem.

Change Passwords

Malware might be used to gather your personal information such as usernames and passwords. Therefore it is important to change all the credentials.

Specifically sensitive accounts like bank account credentials, social media, emails, online retailers and so on. Moreover, you might have to update any PIN numbers.

Create unique, complex, new passwords for every account, using a sequence of letters, numbers, and symbol.

A good idea to safely store passwords is LastPass.

Notify the Credit Bureaus of your spam email

There are three major organisations that help with crisis like identity theft. Namely: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion

You can set a fraud alert or an account freeze until the issue is resolved. Therefore, preventing any hacker from using your bank account details.

Increase Cyber Awareness

Educate your organisation to identify spam emails.

The most efficient way to prevent cyber attacks like social engineering is to prepare. You Gotta Hack That provides cybersecurity training from social engineering attacks.

Contact us and learn how.