Cable One said a number of its customers have received bogus emails asking them to update their subscriber data.
"It appears that your payment that we have on file for you was recently declined when we attempted to pay the due invoice(s) on your account for the month of June, this is either the card balance is low or incorrect card details on file," said the phishing scam email.
The bogus email asks customers to update their payment information to avoid service interruptions.
"Our IT department was able to block the links in the email and shut the website down within an hour of receipt of the email, and we notified our customers about the issue via email and on social media immediately," said Cable One spokesperson Patricia Niemann. "Phishing is unfortunately fairly common these days. Many consumers are savvy enough these days to recognize these emails as phishing, but we always want to notify customers when these situations occur in case there is ever a question."
A report published by Verizon (NYSE: VZ) in April revealed a rise in phishing and ransomware, where data is encrypted and a ransom is demanded.
Phishing, which involves a user receiving an email from a fraudulent source, continues to be a key rising concern for businesses and consumers.
According to the report, 30 percent of phishing messages were opened, up from 23 percent in the 2015 report. Verizon said 13 percent of those clicked to open the malicious attachment or nefarious link.
According to Verizon, hackers have stepped up their phishing activities because it is a technique that offers them a number of advantages such as a very quick time to compromise and the ability to target specific individuals and organizations.
For more:
- read this Times-News story
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