THERE have been a few scams in the past with cybercriminals luring their victims with some form of reward.
The most recent scam has surfaced on the popular instant messaging application, WhatsApp, promising its unsuspecting victims free internet in celebration of its anniversary.
But, now how does one spot these scams? The first rule of of thumb, according ESET SA is to check the relevant company’s website to see the promotion is real and valid.
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The antivirus protection company quickly determined that this fraudulent WhatsApp campaign is hosted by a domain that is home to many other scams impersonating various well-known brands.
If one had to click on the scam’s link, it would take the user to a page that invites them to answer a series of questions in the form of a survey – ranging from how they found the offer to their opinion on the app.
Afterwards the victim would be asked to pass the offer along to at least 30 other people in order to qualify for the alleged rewards.
ESET SA determined that while the objective of the scam was not to install malicious software onto your device or to phish for personal information, it was however, a form of click fraud – ‘ a highly prevalent monetisation scheme that relies on racking up bogus ad clicks that ultimately creates revenue for the operators of any given campaign.’
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