Cybersecurity officials said that more than 8,000 phishing emails had been sent out from fake emails of the Belgian and Dutch post services on Monday.
The figures more than double the number of phishing emails detected by Belgium’s Centre for Cyber Security (CCB) on a regular day, the centre said.
A total of 8,500 reports of phishing emails sent out to users were made to the CCB, with a majority of them asking users to settle "unpaid shipping costs" for bpost or PostNL in the Netherlands.
The centre said that the emails sent out "looked real at first" as the senders misappropriated both post offices' logos, but that a closer look revealed that the parcels listed were nonexistent and that the reference numbers used were fake.
"It has nothing to do with bpost," Miguel De Bruycker, from the CCB said of the emails, adding: "[The senders] choose a supplier that is commonly used in our country."
Reports of the hike of phishing attempts in a single day follows news that cyberattacks targetting Belgium had nearly tripled in 2019, with over 4,000 reports made.
A representative of bpost said that the postal agency will never ask for money via an e-mail, urging people to be vigilant when receiving such emails.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
