Better Business Bureau Warns of Visual Voicemail Scam

The Upstate Better Business Bureau warns you to keep a careful eye on your work email this week.

Fake "visual voicemail" emails are making the rounds.

These emails appear to contain a new voicemail message, but click the attachment and you'll end up at a scam website.  

This is new approach that the BBB has not seen before.

The scammers probably hope that the novelty of it will make you curious enough to click on the link. Don't do it! 

How the Scam Works: The emails appear to come from Microsoft Outlook on "Behalf of an Anonymous Caller," but the messages reference a variety of URLs and phone numbers.

Of the cases the BBB has seen, employees are receiving emails that contain an "Email ID" (see screen shot below) that appears to be from an internal company email address.  

For example, an employee at business ABC would receive a message citing email ID "voice.mail@ABC.com."  

However, the one thing certain about scams is that they will change. Watch out for new variations on the theme.

For example, the BBB have seen multiple emails with a fake voicemail from a 703 (Northern Virginia) area code and from BBB.org email addresses. But scammers are likely to change this up.  

Don't Click the Attachment:  The email attachment appears to be a .wav audio file, but it's really an HTML link that redirects recipients to a malicious website. The destination website may download malware to scan for banking and other sensitive information on your computer. 

 For More Information: To find scams in your area, check Scam Source. To learn more about phishing emails and how to spot them, see the Better Business Bureau's information on the subject.