Beware phishing email from Orange

TELECOMS company Orange has warned customers not to be fooled by an email claiming to be from its accounting department and warning of a VAT payment error on their bills.

The emails, which say the company overcharged customers by calculating VAT at 80% rather than 20% and that they should click a link to reclaim payment, come a few days after it was revealed that personal details of 800,000 Orange customers had been stolen.

Orange’s Mon Compte client page on www.orange.fr was pirated and a link inserted which allowed criminals to get access to certain customer details such as surnames, first names, postal and email addresses, some details of the RIB bank codes (not useable, Orange says), and mobile or landline numbers.

Now, just days later, customers may be receiving emails purporting to be from Orange saying they can reclaim sums such as €95 by clicking on a similar link.

The company said that it never sent out emails that contained clickable links – and added that the criminals behind “phishing” scams were very clever at making their emails seem believable.

One of Connexion’s journalists received such an email today and said: “After all the company’s security problems it seemed fake – but it had arrived in my personal Orange account, which had only previously been used for Orange emails and it seemed plausible that the company could have made such a silly VAT mistake.”

Orange press office said that any suspicious emails from the company should be sent to abuse@orange.fr where they will be investigated and the sending account closed.