While many parents should drop a smartphone to their teens under the tree, it could come with a poisoned gift.
The holiday season is a godsend for a new scam attempt, which is starting to gain momentum in France.
It aims to trick parents into believing that their child's phone is broken and that they are going to need help.
And especially money.
“Hello mum/dad, my phone is broken.
This is my new phone number.
+337748XXXX you can save this.
Send me a message via WhatsApp “, can we read for example.
Once the discussion has started, the phishing has been successful, online hackers will indeed often ask for money to replace this phone, among other things.
“Whenever there are events or holidays (end of year for example), it is always a possibility for cybercriminals to attempt a scam.
They surely intend to take advantage of Christmas gifts and the weeks that follow to steal from relatives.
This is a variant of the attempt to relatives in an emergency situation ”, identifies Christophe Sicard, cybersecurity analyst at Cybermalveillance, the national system for assistance to victims of online attacks.
Do you receive a message from a relative who tells you that he broke his phone and that you have to call him on another number urgently?
This is the "family emergency" scam very popular among English speakers and which is coming to France ⏬ #SMS #alert #scam pic.twitter.com/yrmLk9zNiE
— Signal-Arnaques (@SignalArnaques) December 9, 2022
Remember, this was indeed one of the first scams of the decade where you received an email from a loved one claiming to be sick or stranded abroad and asking you for money.
“Except today, the syntax and spelling have improved.
This was the big fashion for years after the hacking of an email account, ”says the expert.
A scam that has claimed thousands of victims in Australia
The scammers who will make you switch to WhatsApp messaging "easier to try to exchange, but also easier to administer for these hackers who manage several scams at once".
“They always use the same recipe by activating the psychological spring, the feeling of urgency, an alarming message… Remember the attempted scam at the vital card”, warns Christophe Sicard.
Without forgetting the link to the news.
This is also why, in recent days as Christmas approaches, the SMS package delivery scam has started to rise again.
During this holiday season, you will have to redouble your concentration and efforts to thwart all these intrusions.
Read also“Your Netflix account has been suspended”: beware of this SMS scam to steal your data
The Cybermalveillance government site, which has seen this kind of SMS multiply this week, has not yet been approached by a victim.
Experts advise not to respond to this message and have it confirmed by another means, by calling another relative or the old, supposedly inoperative number.
If this process is freshly landed in France, it is however not unknown and has already "proven itself".
Indeed, according to local media, he has already had immense and unfortunate success in Australia.
Called "Hy mum", this scam would have made more than 11,000 victims who would have lost more than 7.2 million euros on the other side of the planet.
