Father
Professional
- Messages
- 2,602
- Reaction score
- 798
- Points
- 113
Anna:
During the pandemic, she began to use one popular video conferencing service. And recently a very strange letter came from his official address.
It contained a message about some kind of compensation in connection with COVID-19, and immediately a link to an unfamiliar site. For the sake of interest, I clicked on the link and ended up on the page of a certain financial support fund. It says that I am entitled to compensation, the amount of which can be found by entering the last four digits of my bank card. Well, I entered it at random. The site showed that I was entitled to $ 500. Everything is clear - a divorce.
I read further: you can get money only by paying a small commission. Of course, also from a bank card - there is also a form for filling in all the details. I have already stopped at this: but someone will behave and merge their card details with fraudsters.
I don’t understand how all this ended up in the official mailing list of the service? The address from which the letter came is the same from which I usually receive all letters and notifications from them. In general, I took a screenshot of everything and sent it to friends so as not to fall for this deception. She also complained to the service itself.
Financial Culture Expert:
Fraudsters are increasingly using well-known services to mislead users on their behalf and then steal from them. They send fake "notifications" to the online calendar, use bank SMS mailing in their schemes.
The goal is always the same: to entice confidential information from a person - the full details of the bank card, including the expiration date and the three-digit code on the back. This data gives attackers access to the account from which they can steal all the money.
In Anna's case, the scammers took advantage of the growing popularity of the video conferencing service. When creating a new account in it, the user can enter rather long text in the "First name" and "Last name" fields. Fraudsters drive in whole phrases there. For example, instead of a name - "You are entitled to compensation in connection with COVID-19", and instead of a surname - a link to a phishing site.
After registration, the service offers a new user to invite up to ten acquaintances to participate in video conferences. To do this, you need to specify their email, and they will receive an invitation. Scammers drive in addresses that have ended up on the network, for example, due to leakage of personal data.
As a result, people receive a letter from a well-known company - from its real address and with the branding. But only instead of the name and surname of a friend or colleague who invites you to join video chats, they see the text of the deceivers and a link to their website. Anna received a similar letter on the form and from the official website of the video service offering compensation.
Fraudsters could promise anything: a government payment, winning a competition, refunds for a flight canceled due to a pandemic, and much more. Or offer a "discount" when subscribing to the video conferencing service itself and leave a link to its clone site, where it would also be required to indicate bank card details.
If Anna believed the message and entered the card details on a fraudulent website, she would lose money from her account. At the same time, it would not work to return the stolen amount through the bank: after all, in this situation, she herself would transfer confidential information to outsiders. I would have had to go to the police.
In order not to fall for the tricks of deceivers, follow the safety rules:
During the pandemic, she began to use one popular video conferencing service. And recently a very strange letter came from his official address.
It contained a message about some kind of compensation in connection with COVID-19, and immediately a link to an unfamiliar site. For the sake of interest, I clicked on the link and ended up on the page of a certain financial support fund. It says that I am entitled to compensation, the amount of which can be found by entering the last four digits of my bank card. Well, I entered it at random. The site showed that I was entitled to $ 500. Everything is clear - a divorce.
I read further: you can get money only by paying a small commission. Of course, also from a bank card - there is also a form for filling in all the details. I have already stopped at this: but someone will behave and merge their card details with fraudsters.
I don’t understand how all this ended up in the official mailing list of the service? The address from which the letter came is the same from which I usually receive all letters and notifications from them. In general, I took a screenshot of everything and sent it to friends so as not to fall for this deception. She also complained to the service itself.
Financial Culture Expert:
Fraudsters are increasingly using well-known services to mislead users on their behalf and then steal from them. They send fake "notifications" to the online calendar, use bank SMS mailing in their schemes.
The goal is always the same: to entice confidential information from a person - the full details of the bank card, including the expiration date and the three-digit code on the back. This data gives attackers access to the account from which they can steal all the money.
In Anna's case, the scammers took advantage of the growing popularity of the video conferencing service. When creating a new account in it, the user can enter rather long text in the "First name" and "Last name" fields. Fraudsters drive in whole phrases there. For example, instead of a name - "You are entitled to compensation in connection with COVID-19", and instead of a surname - a link to a phishing site.
After registration, the service offers a new user to invite up to ten acquaintances to participate in video conferences. To do this, you need to specify their email, and they will receive an invitation. Scammers drive in addresses that have ended up on the network, for example, due to leakage of personal data.
As a result, people receive a letter from a well-known company - from its real address and with the branding. But only instead of the name and surname of a friend or colleague who invites you to join video chats, they see the text of the deceivers and a link to their website. Anna received a similar letter on the form and from the official website of the video service offering compensation.
Fraudsters could promise anything: a government payment, winning a competition, refunds for a flight canceled due to a pandemic, and much more. Or offer a "discount" when subscribing to the video conferencing service itself and leave a link to its clone site, where it would also be required to indicate bank card details.
If Anna believed the message and entered the card details on a fraudulent website, she would lose money from her account. At the same time, it would not work to return the stolen amount through the bank: after all, in this situation, she herself would transfer confidential information to outsiders. I would have had to go to the police.
In order not to fall for the tricks of deceivers, follow the safety rules:
- If you received a letter from a service in which you are not registered, immediately transfer the message to the "Spam" folder. And do not follow the links in this letter - this way you can download a virus that steals data to your device.
- Do not enter card information, PIN codes, passwords and codes from bank notifications, as well as passport and other documents data on dubious sites. First, make sure the page is not phishing.
- Do not trust “letters of happiness” and advertisements about sudden enrichment or compensation. If you are promised a "refund from the state", first check in the media and on the official websites of departments whether a law or a decree on any payments has really been passed. Ideally, you should find this document and study it carefully.
- Install antivirus software on all gadgets you use.
