Hackers Begin to Take Advantage of Omicron Variant

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading rapidly around the world. While we wait for more information on how it will change the pandemic, hackers have decided to pounce now.

In an attack making its way around England, hackers are posing as the National Health Service (NHS), offering free PCR tests that can detect the new variant. There are a few variations on the same scam:

Should an end-user click on the link, they are redirected to a fake NHS page, and asked for the following information:

• Full Name
• Date of Birth
• Email address
• Home address
• Phone Number
• Mother's Maiden Name
• £1.24 ($1.64) as a delivery fee

Giving over this information to a hacker is giving them the keys to the house and the alarm code--they will have everything they need to pull off tons of future scams.

We've seen plenty of COVID-19 related scams, including this one in August that also spoofed the NHS.