According to a report by Eset Latin America, a type of scam has been discovered that is spreading on WhatsApp, in which criminals are trying to get people’s attention. offering them raffles for products returned to Mercado Libre.

These types of messages reach potential victims from known contacts who have also fallen into the trapIn addition to the announcement announcing a raffle of 10,000 returned items, a compressed link is sent that promises to redirect users to the official website of Mercadolibre, the company targeted by the cybercriminals.

It would be a scam campaign Another case of phishingBecause cyber thieves try to make landing sites or landing pages look as real as possible, including elements such as the logo, colors and fonts characteristic of, in this case, Mercado Libre.

In addition to copying the visual identity of an e-commerce site’s official web pages, criminals also Try to build trust by including fake testimonials from potential winners This sweepstakes and questionnaire for customers to express their opinion about the company’s service.

Once on the scam site and after answering a few questions, the user is redirected to a very different draw than what was initially promised, which turns out to be much better, as the contestant has 3 chances to discover the prize. , but regardless of the chosen option, you will always win. Quite expensive prizes such as mobile phones or cash.

As a claim to claim the prize, The potential winner must share the link and offer with a minimum number of their WhatsApp contacts, Deploying the trap en masse without cybercriminals getting involved, that’s right It is for this reason that deception is almost always sent by an acquaintance.

But like all fake internet rewards, after sharing the link, the victim is redirected to another website that contains horrorA type of invasive advertisement that warns that the mobile phone has a system malfunction and therefore the application should be downloaded immediately.

for the moment None of the sites to which the user is redirected refer to the sweepstakes again, And now, attackers try to keep the attention of potential victims through questionnaires, buttons or comments. Despite this, At this point, people should have already started to suspect that this is just an attempt at a scam.

The cyber security company, Eset, reports that the button to download possible updates is no longer available on these malicious sites, however, these web pages still contain all kinds of false information, such as advertising more gifts, bonuses and other types of invasive inserts. .

Recommendations for detecting scams on the Internet

– The most important sentence is mistrust and Unreasonably open links that offer any kind of gifts or bonuses from well-known companies, Because they are just an excuse to attract the attention of users.

– Although the website visually appears to be from a legitimate company, Check that the link address is related to the company, This time the domain was unrelated to the official Mercado Libre URL.

– Ignore any advertisements from the website that warn about computer viruses or device system malfunctions, as these types of messages are always internal and displayed by the same mobile phone or installed antivirus.

Continue reading: