Valentine's Day scam: Fake website imitates jewellery brand, phishes couples - Hindustan Times
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Valentine's Day scam: Fake website imitates jewellery brand, phishes couples

By | Written by Nishtha Grover, Delhi
Feb 12, 2021 04:12 PM IST

Recently, the famous jewellery brand Pandora became a victim of malicious online phishing scam when people were sent emailers by a fake website trying to copy the jewellery brand. The fake website showed Pandora products at an unreasonably low rate during Valentine's week.

A lot of people prefer online shopping nowadays. From clothes to grocery, you name it and they have it. Sitting comfortably in your home while swiping your fingers and the product getting delivered at your doorstep is what a lot of people prefer, rather than actually going to the shops and getting the stuff. Another reason that our generation inclines towards online shopping is busy schedules. With everyone being overly occupied with their jobs and other things, no one really has the time to physically go and shop for what they need.

Phishing scams during Valentine's week(Unsplash)
Phishing scams during Valentine's week(Unsplash)

However, it is not all that simple. The increase in online shopping has also resulted in an increase in phishing practices on the internet. The number of online scandals, including fake websites and stealing money from accounts, has become rather common. And these things become recurrent especially during festivals. Pandora, one of the largest jewellery brand, became a victim of this malicious practice recently, according to a report by CheckPoint.

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With Valentine's Day right around the corner, the fake jewellery website targeted people and tried to fool them by showing unreasonably cheap products and marking it as Valentine's discount. The report spoke about an emailer sent to various email ids aka probable customers trying to buy special presents for their loved ones. On the first look, the emailer looked genuine, but it was the minuscule details that gave it away. The first one being the address of Pandora, which was written in lower case and it was unusual for the original Pandora website and emailers.

Fake emailer sent to customers
Fake emailer sent to customers

Another thing was the year. Unlike the original Pandora, the year on the emailer was not updated to 2021 and still showed 2020. That was one of the major giveaways. This proved that the email was fake, however, there were other giveaways too, like the bogus email address from which the mails were sent was not related to Pandora. On top of that, clicking on any of the links, directed the customers to a fake page that had a relatively different URL but the website looked quite similar to original Pandora.

Therefore, while ordering gifts for your loved ones during Valentine's week or even buying anything for yourself, carefully look for these things and once you are sure about the authenticity of the website, only then continue with the payments.

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