Better Business Bureau serving Central, Coastal and Southwest Texas is alerting the public about a new phishing attack resembling a BBB complaint e-mail confirmation. The malicious e-mails first came to the attention of BBB on Thursday, October 15th.

When consumers request BBB assistance in resolving a dispute with a business, they receive a confirmation e-mail or letter and subsequent follow-up e-mails from BBB on the status of their complaint. The malicious phishing e-mail attack is designed to mimic a confirmation e-mail from BBB and includes the full name of the recipient and the name of the company they supposedly filed a complaint about.

According to reports, individuals who have received this e-mail have not actually filed a dispute with BBB but are, instead, employed by the business the e-mail claims they have filed a complaint about.

BBB serving Central, Coastal and Southwest Texas reminds consumers and businesses that they will receive a phone call from BBB staff regarding any complaint filed. Anyone who receives a complaint e-mail confirmation claiming to be from BBB, but has not actually filed a complaint with BBB, should not click on any links in the e-mail. Instead, either delete the message or forward it to: phishing@council.bbb.org.

BBB serving Central, Coastal and Southwest Texas points out the differences in the phishing e-mail and the actual e-mail consumers would receive in response to a dispute filed online:

1) BBB complaint case numbers do not contain letters

2) The subject line of a BBB confirmation e-mail does not contain the consumer’s name or the company’s name

3) The link to a consumer’s complaint from our BBB will begin with “austin.app.bbb.” The phishing e-mail includes a link to “yilan.com” which is based in Taiwan.

4) The “from” address for BBB complaint confirmations is not “complaintsmajdivision@complaints.bbb.org.”

For more information on safe Internet habits and to check the reliability of a company, visit www.bbb.org.