The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has warned the public about a spate of fake messages, sent out as SMS text messages, fraudulently telling recipients that they have been exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

In a tweet, the NHS said that it had seen reports of text messages that claimed to come from the NHS, telling recipients that they had been in close contact with someone who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection, and that they should order a testing kit.

Fake NHS text 1

So, what happens if you do make the mistake of clicking on the link in the bogus text message you have received?

The real NHS website is at nhs.uk, but obviously the scammers don’t want you to go there.

Instead, the link sent to you by the scammers takes you to a lookalike website that pretends to belong to the NHS.

Fake NHS Website 1

To the casual observer it looks very much like the real NHS website. Indeed, on a smartphone you may very well not notice that the domain you have visited is not nhs.uk.

This bogus website wants you to order a test kit, for which you will “only have to pay £0.99 for postage”.

Fake NHS Website 2

The real NHS does not distribute free COVID-19 test kits anymore, so the notion that all you have to do to receive a free test is pay 99 pence postage should also ring alarm bells in the victim’s minds. However, if you’ve got this far through the scam chances are that you will also have forgotten that fact in your panic to get yourself tested for the Omicron variant.

Of course, the website doesn’t just want your money. It also wants your full name, address, date of birth, and other personal information. If you hand over this information you (Read more...)