According to the expert, scammers are waiting for the eve of Knowledge Day, the return of many people from vacation and the activation of school chats in instant messaging programs. They are trying to trick people and take over profiles in these applications using social engineering techniques. It was seen that scammers targeted WhatsApp.
The scheme is as follows: a WhatsApp user receives a message from a friend asking them to vote for “my daughter in the contest” or for a friend’s child. The message contains an attachment with a link that you must follow to “reauthorize on Messenger”.
Of course, there is no authorization: the user who clicks on the link loses his WhatsApp account. Moreover, the same model was observed in Telegram in 2023.
This is done in order to search for other victims who are using the same scheme or to reach out to authorities and senior executives who may be on the victims’ contact list.
“In the lead-up to September 1, the number of attacks using social engineering to hijack WhatsApp accounts, such as ‘Vote for my daughter’, is increasing… We believe the concentration of attackers is related to the upcoming attack: Knowledge Day, the return from holidays and the revival of school chats,” Kalemberg explained.
Source: Ferra
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