Fakemail Chamber of Commerce in circulation!

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Ondernemers pay attention, you are being targeted again!
At the moment we are receiving messages from customers, who seem to receive an email from the Chamber of Commerce. Lijken, because the sender is not the Chamber of Commerce. But how do you recognize such a fake email? What should you do, and what should you not? We`ll tell you in this blog post.

"Subject: New Chamber of Commerce digital key registration"

An email will be sent, with the sender of the Chamber of Commerce, stating that you as an entrepreneur should request your `KVK digital key registration`. Fast, free of charge, and via iDIN, an identification means that is linked to your bank account. You may have guessed it: this email is not legitimate. Mark it as spam and do not click on the link. The purpose of the cyber crooks behind these emails is to obtain your banking and identification information.

We did some research for you and discovered that the people behind these emails hacked into a website in Kenya. They then put a page on it that exactly resembles that of the institution you think you are visiting.

Can I see for myself whether an e-mail is legitimate or not?
This e-mail, which is said to have come from the Chamber of Commerce, has been drafted quite neatly. Unlike begging Nigerian kings, who often make a lot of language mistakes, more and more people with better language skills are trying to supplement their income by composing phishing emails. Illegal of course, because composing an e-mail in which you tempt people to fall for your scam is of course punishable!

In the fakemail is also warned in the last sentence that the Chamber of Commerce will never ask for fine repayments by mail or text message. They have read well!

Of course you do not want your digital key registration to go wrong and you to be expelled from the Chamber of Commerce. However, you should not just click on anything. When getting a questionable email, always go through the following checks first:

  • Look at the sender. And then not to the name, but click on the name at the top, and you will see the e-mail address appear. In this case: kvknederland@planet.nl. That is strange, from such a large company you can expect that mail will be sent from its own domain, in this case kvk.nl.
  • The next check that you can perform is by means of a mouse-over (so NOT by clicking! ) to see where the link in the email goes. If you hover your mouse over the link, you will see an example link appear at the bottom left of your computer screen. Do you work a lot on your mobile? Then open the email on your laptop or PC, because clicking on a link in an email is a bad idea, even on your mobile phone.
  • Are you still in doubt? Then visit the website of the Chamber of Commerce. Via your own search method, or via the website you already know. So again not via the information from the e-mail. In this case, if you go to https://www.kvk.nl/, you will also see that the KVK website opens with the statement: "Fake Chamber of Commerce e-mail There is currently a phishing e-mail going around..."

If you don't see a notification, search the website to see if you can find anything about, in this case, requesting a new digital key. If not, chances are you are dealing with phishing. You can also always call the company in question and ask whether they are the sender of the e-mail.

What can you do to protect yourself against phishing?

The most important measure you can take to protect yourself against cybercriminals who want to access your data is to have a good antivirus program, for example ESET. We work with this ourselves and we are very satisfied with it.

In addition, prevent yourself from being hacked. If you have a website in HWCMS, we monitor all spam and hacking attacks. In addition, your website is periodically checked by an external company, so that we ensure that your website remains secure.

Even if you have a website in WordPress or Joomla, we are happy to advise you. Make sure you keep the plugins up to date at all times. Essential security plugins are indispensable to keep your website safe.

Never use easy or old passwords to log in. Chances are, a password you`ve used before has already been discovered. You can easily check whether this is the case yourself via the website `;--have i been pwned?.

Build your own website in HWCMS
With an HWCMS website you are assured of:

  • A safe website
  • Many useful modules
  • Cheap webshop
  • Good findability


Do you also want a neat website in the corporate identity of your company, without having to worry about the technical side? Request a non-binding quote for an affordable HWCMS website of Hoogma Webdesign.

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