Fraudsters are tricking people in the UK via fake Covid-19 vaccination invites, scammers are posing to be from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), and are sending fake emails including a link to enroll for the vaccine.
NHS has alerted the public by tweeting on their official account that no registration is required for the real vaccination. We would never ask for bank details, verification of documents such as your passport, driving license, bills, or payslips, and no payment is required for the vaccination.
The multiple variants of phishing emails are floating around the internet but they all point towards the NHS, claiming a message from the NHS website ‘noreply@nhs.gov.uk’ (the original NHS website is NHS.uk). Scammers are using mail subject identical to “IMPORTANT – Public Health Message. Decide whether if you want to be vaccinated”.
Cybersecurity consultant Daniel Card explained that traffic data is suggesting fraudsters have tricked thousands of recipients to click on the fake website but it remains unclear how many recipients have filled in the form. National Cyber Security Centre and Action Fraud have urged people to report scam emails or texts.
Health secretary Matt Hancock stated that “vaccines are our way out of this pandemic, it is vital that we do not let a small number of unscrupulous fraudsters undermine the huge team effort underway across the country to protect millions of people from this terrible disease”.
This was not the first phishing campaign related to the covid-19 vaccination, at the start of this month fraudsters sent bogus text messages to the recipients posing to be from the NHS and asking recipients to register for a vaccine and provide bank details for verification.
