Newsbook is latest victim in spoof catfishing email saga

The online news portal Newsbook is the latest victim of a spoof email saga that has been going on in recent days.

All newspapers in Malta have been recently receiving endless spoof emails from impersonators of journalists, NGOs, politicians and media houses. 

The latest email pretends to be from the Church-owned online newspaper Newsbook, which includes made-up reporting that Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi received expensive gifts by Tumas Group.

A spoof website of the newsbook online portal was also created in order to host this ‘article’.

Azzopardi has already been outed as having accepted a freebie hotel stay at the Tel Aviv Hilton, courtesy of Tumas Group owner Ray Fenech.

Spoof emails are intended to trick the receiver into thinking that an email came from a particular person or entity that are deemed trustworthy. The email header would show as being received from a known safe sender address, but if one were to inspect the message details, it would show as being generated through a different one. 

Screenshot of the fake email thread between Manuel Delia and Jason Azzopardi

Opposition leader Bernard Grech said it was worrying to see “fake news tactics aimed at confusing voters especially as we head closer to a general election.”

“Journalism is essential to democracy and any deliberate attempts to undermine it must be fought forcefully. Whoever is behind these tactics, government and Opposition must unite to ensure police have all the recourses necessary to fight this form of cybercrime.

“I invite Robert Abela to a discussion on how we can strengthen laws and police resources to tackle such issues ahead of the next election.”

The latest saga started off with a fake email that was supposedly sent by journalist Manuel Delia, in which it was stated that he was suffering from health issues and was apologising for his ‘misconduct’. 

The email was sent to Delia himself, where he confirmed that it was a spoof email, and the issue had been reported to the police.

The emails from the fake Manuel Delia kept on being sent including supposed conversations with PN MP Jason Azzopardi. 

The issue also escalated to the point that someone also created a spoof website that looks exactly like the blog of Manuel Delia but contains fake articles that feed into various conspiracy theories. 

Delia explained the situation through a blog post and said that he was dealing with the ordeal with the police, lawyers and authorities. “If you read something attributed to me that sounds out of character, check and check again if I really wrote it. If you’ve read more than two pieces I’ve written you know that if I’m nothing else, I’m consistent. Don’t be fooled by a familiar email address or by a familiar look and feel of the website. If it doesn’t read like the real thing, it almost certainly isn’t.” 

Upon inspection by this newsroom, all of these emails seem to have been generated using a website under a Czech domain. The website states that it is a ‘free online fake mailer’ and that ‘this service does not violate any EU law’. 

Other fake emails have been sent on behalf of the NGO Repubblika, for which a fake spoof website was also created.