Hackers attacking WhatsApp profiles more often before September 1

As September 1 approaches, there has been an increase in the number of attacks aimed at hijacking WhatsApp profiles. Most often, fraudsters use the “Vote for my daughter in the competition” scheme. This was reported by SafeTech Commercial Director Denis Kalemberg.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Kalemberg noted that attacks using social engineering have increased in anticipation of the start of the school year. According to him, this is due to people returning from vacation and the activation of school chats, which creates a convenient ground for fraudsters.

The attack scheme looks like this: the victim receives a message from an acquaintance who asks to vote for his child or friends' children in a competition, for example, a dance or gymnastics one. The message contains a link for voting, and if the user follows it, he is asked to re-authorize in the messenger.

In fact, under the guise of authorization, the attackers gain access to the user's account and contacts. The scammers can then use the stolen data for various schemes, from requests for money to attempts to find company CEOs among contacts. Kalemberg recalled that similar attacks were common about a year ago, but back then they involved taking over Telegram accounts. Now, the scammers have switched to WhatsApp, using similar methods.