The fraudulent campaign is hosted by a domain that is home to yet more bogus offers pretending to come from other well-known brands
Recently, ESET researchers in Latin America received a message on WhatsApp stating that the app was giving away 1000 GB of internet data to celebrate its anniversary. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when we say that it was a scam, but let’s look at it in greater detail.
Figure 1. The ruse
What strikes us right off the bat here is that the URL that comes with the message is not an official WhatsApp domain. Even though businesses may sometimes run promotions through third parties, the rule of thumb here is to check on the company’s website to make sure any promotion is real and valid.
Nevertheless, if you were to click on the link, you would be taken to a page that invites you to answer a series of questions in the form of a survey – ranging from how you found the offer to your opinion on the app.
Figure 2. The ‘survey’
While you would be responding to the questionnaire, the site would invite you to pass along the offer to at least 30 more people in order to qualify for the big ‘reward’. Needless to say, this is merely a way to boost the campaign’s reach.
Figure 3. The ploy designed to boost the campaign’s reach
So, what are the fraudsters running this WhatsApp-themed scam looking to gain from i ..
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