Security
Impersonation scam targets Joomla site owners
mySites.guru has documented an active impersonation campaign in which attackers pose as Joomla developer Fotis Evangelou to request privileged site access and a $550 payment.
The emails claim that “Joomla support” identified urgent updates and technical SEO work needed before a stated deadline. The sender uses Evangelou’s name, photograph and genuine public links, but writes from a Gmail account. The report says Evangelou did not send the messages.
After the recipient showed interest, the correspondent requested a new Joomla administrator account for “Fotis Evangelou”, specifically asking for Super User access. A separate invoice was issued under the name David Lazarus. The researcher did not create an account or pay.
mySites.guru classifies the incident as impersonation, phishing and social engineering rather than a vulnerability in a Joomla extension. No affected extension, vendor version, fixed version, CVE identifier or formal severity rating is given. The campaign was observed sending emails, but the report does not document a successful site compromise.
Administrators should independently verify unexpected maintenance requests, avoid granting Super User access to unverified contacts, and not follow payment instructions in unsolicited messages. Check with the named developer through a trusted channel before taking action.
Originally reported by mySites.guru.