Yellowknife woman dealing with constant phishing emails impersonating Northwestel
Northwestel says it has upgraded its security software in an effort to combat the increase in phishing
A Yellowknife woman says she's been receiving regular emails impersonating her internet provider Northwestel and that despite reporting it, nothing has been done.
Amanda Mallon says about six months ago, she received an email with Northwestel's logo that looked legitimate at first, but she quickly realized it was a scam.
"So right off the bat I contacted Northwestel to tell them that I had received what appeared to be a fraudulent email and sent it to them and assumed that would be it," said Mallon.
But it wasn't.
"And the next week I got another one, and the next week I got another one," Mallon said.
Mallon said the Northwestel scams do look legitimate at first, and they often say the client needs to click a link or their account could be deactivated.
"They're very tricky because they come from your trusted provider," Mallon said.
She said she's been receiving them relentlessly — on the day Mallon spoke with CBC News, she had received two emails.
Mallon says she has called and emailed Northwestel repeatedly about the emails impersonating the company, and has gotten little reassurance that anything is being done to address the scam.
Catherine Newsome, a spokesperson for Northwestel, wrote in an email that the company upgraded its security software in late March to help the company deal with the growing issue of phishing and spoofing scams.
"E-mail phishing or spoofing is a significant and growing issue across platforms and service providers," she said.
"We expect these upgrades to improve end-user protection from phishing and spam attempts through enhanced machine learning, anti-phishing, and anti-fraud intelligence protocols."
Newsome also wrote that the company does address reports of spam and fraud as customers report them.
According to data from the Canada Anti-Fraud Centre, N.W.T. residents have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to various scams since 2020. One concern researchers have highlighted is how artificial intelligence has made scams harder to decipher.
Newsome wrote that anyone who has been a victim of identity theft, telemarketing, e-mail, or internet fraud should contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.