• by Jess Nelson , December 11, 2015

The random phishing campaign targets consumers and businesses that use Alibaba.com by mimicking the China-based e-commerce giant with a spooked email address. Alibaba currently has an estimated 400 million global users.

Hackers are sending emails to Alibaba.com customers from the fake email address feedback@service.alibaba.com, which has a striking resemblance to Alibaba's customer service URL service.alibaba.com.

Ironically, the email asks Alibaba.com customers to verify their accounts to cut down on spam and fraudulent emails. Hackers then steal password and log-on information from customers once they verify the information.

The Comodo Antispam Labs team has identified the alibaba.com phishing email through IP, domain, and URL analysis.

“Cybercriminals are getting more and more creative each day -- trying to use breaking news in the world of technology to try and take advantage of businesses and consumers and steal data, passwords, and financial information,” states Fatih Orhan, Director of Technology for Comodo and the Comodo Antispam Labs.

The holidays are a popular time for email phishing scams, as more and more consumers turn to online shopping.

Both malware and spam rose in November, according to Symantec's November Intelligence Report. One in 140 emails contained malware in November, according to the report. The overall email spam rate also increased .6% since October for a total of 54.1%.