The telecom operator Orange launches Tuesday morning a fake advertising campaign touting an unlimited 6G for 100 years, designed to trap - nicely - naïve Internet users and remind them to be cautious about the risk of "phishing". Posters in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, and Internet advertising banners mimicking some of Orange's visual codes invite Internet users to benefit from a wonderful offer (an "unlimited 6G pass for 100 years") by visiting a site Special (6g100ans.fr) who will ask them for personal information.
There, Orange quickly falls off the mask to explain to Internet users that they are on a fake site, like those used by hackers phishing, that is to say, an identity theft to extort bribes. data. And the operator to describe the signs that signal the scam: the offers and mirrored urgency, imitated logos, spelling errors, requests for personal data ... The posters will remain in place 48 hours.
"I was close to clicking"
Phishing "is constantly growing," said Hugues Foulon, the director of strategy and activities of cybersecurity Orange. "Our goal is not to terrorize" the risk of phishing, "but to be educational," he added. Orange's fake campaign is deliberately caricatured, but in reality, "it's harder and harder to recognize a phishing email, and I myself have been on the verge of clicking" on some particularly sophisticated messages he acknowledged.
Orange receives 20,000 alert emails every day on its abuse@orange.fr address, which allows subscribers to report suspicious emails. The operator requests each month the closure of 1,500 sites usurping his identity. And Orange is not the most usurped brand. According to a European and North American ranking published by cybersecurity company Vade Secure, which specializes in securing e-mail, Microsoft was the most diverted brand by phishers in the first quarter of 2019. Then come Paypal, Netflix, Facebook, Bank of America and Crédit Agricole. Orange arrives at the 16th position.