The city of Antwerp was probably hit by a hacker attack. The city’s support email address would send fake phishing emails via blocked MetaMask wallets.

Phishing emails are to be sent via the City of Antwerp’s support email address. This was noticed by Frank Louwers on Tuesday and shared on X. The email states that a MetaMask wallet was blocked. According to a spokesperson for the city of Antwerp to Data News, the hacking problem lies with an external partner. That’s one possible way, but the email address is actually the domain of the city of Antwerp.

Own address

One or more official email addresses of the city of Antwerp have allegedly been hacked and used for phishing. Frank Louwers shared a fake email he received from the city on X. A city spokesperson told Data News that this is not an official email address, but it appears to be the case. In Louwers’ example it says “support@antwerpen.be”.

Government phishing emails are a common way to deceive users. Typically, minor changes are made to the sender’s email address so that the recipient does not immediately recognize whether it is an official address.

In the case of the city of Antwerp, this is actually the city’s official email address. This indicates that one or more email addresses have been hacked. The phishing email from the city of Antwerp is about a (mistaken) report of a blocked MetaMask wallet.

The city of Antwerp has been the target of cyber attacks before. In 2022, the city was hit by a massive cyberattack that crippled several systems for a long time.