There is no occasion for WhatsApp scammers to apply various methods to take money or steal users’ accounts, even from those who consider themselves cautious — there are cases of scammers pretending to be app support or making unsuspecting calls. But the occasion of Father’s Day, next Sunday (14), is also being used to formulate a ruse, this time offering a supposed free withdrawal of BRL 50.
The fraud uncovered by security firm Kaspersky highlights that scammers use a bank as bait to steal victims’ Pix key. “Congratulations, you won!”, reads the message in a link from a fake institution that asks the user to provide their Pix key, whether mobile or CPFfor the bonus to be deposited.
On the same page, the user is also faced with false comments from a social network, claiming that they have already received the money, giving an aura of reliability to the scam. These are all misleading images and text, says Kaspersky.
In the next step, the victim is still invited to share the scheme with other people so that the R$50 transfer is carried out — and there is still the threat that, if the link is not distributed, the Pix will go to someone else. Hence, the front site asks for confirmation of the Pix key, since, with this information (usually the cell phone number or CPF), scammers can use it in other frauds via WhatsApp, or even being sold in banks. data to other criminals.
“Adding sharing in one of the steps makes the fraud even more dangerous, as they make the victim send the scam to friends and relatives, lending credibility to the fraudulent link”, says Fabio Assolini, director of the global research and analysis team at Kaspersky in Latin America.
The tip, finally, is to always be suspicious of this type of promotion, check in official sources and not give your personal data so easily to anything you receive, whether on WhatsApp, SMS, email, etc.
And you, have you come across such scams? Tell us!
