Telecoms operator offers 100 years unlimited 6G to the gullible

French telecoms operator Orange has launched a campaign offering a deliberately fake deal of one hundred years unlimited 6G, in an operation to alert people to the practice of phishing.

The idea is to make people aware of the dangers of revealing passwords and other private details to fraudulent outfits purporting to be trustworthy entities but actually engaging in what is called phishing.

In the Orange campaign, posters in Paris, Lyon and Marseille as well as publicity banners on the internet, use familiar Orange-style graphics and visuals and invite internet users to visit a specially-created site (6g100ans.fr) where they are asked to reveal sensitive personal details.

They are immediately informed that the site is fake, like those used by pirates engaged in phishing.

Aim is to educate
The site gives tips on how to spot fake sites or fraudulent offers.

The posters and publicity banners are to stay up for 48 hours.

“Phishing is constantly evolving,” says Hugues Foulon, director of strategy for cybersecurity at Orange. “Our aim is not to frighten people … but to teach them about the risks” he said.

Foulon said “it's getting harder and harder to recognize phishing emails and even I was almost convinced” by certain particularly sophisticated messages.

Orange receives 20,000 messages per day from users signaling possible suspect emails.

The Orange identity is frequently usurped but according to recent statistics, the most often usurped is Microsoft, followed by Paypal, Netflix and Facebook.