Alert of false State program that offers “economic aid” through WhatsApp

A new misleading message is circulating on WhatsApp, which promises “financial aid” of up to 945 soles for women. This fake program seeks to enter a web page to provide some personal information and then continue sharing what could become a dangerous cyber scam.

“In the example we received the message that arrives via WhatsApp says ‘Receive up to S/945 Soles With the New Solidarity Income Pattern 2023′. It tries to make believe that housewives, unemployed women, young students, single women or foreigners between the ages of 17 and 65 who do not receive remuneration can apply for this financial aid. The message also contains a link to a page that does not appear to be linked to a public body”, notes ESET’s WeLiveSecurity.

The message of the supposed program, which seeks to deceive women in particular. | (Photo: WeLiveSecurity)

The message uses elements from other social programs to appear real. “By clicking on the link, the person arrives at a site that describes what this supposed financial aid is about. The site uses the logo of a program with the same name of the Colombian government, but whose site corresponds to a government page: https://ingresosolidario.prosperidadsocial.gov.co/. In this case, the link that comes through the message has no relationship with a government site.”, he adds.

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After entering the unknown link, the user will be “informed” of this “benefit” and will be asked to answer some questions. After completing this step, you will also be asked to share the “program” with your contacts, which creates a spam chain. To create a sense of realism, there are some comments at the end of supposed beneficiaries, a tactic used in many cyber-scams.

Finally, the victim will be asked to choose how they want to receive the benefit: cash or supplies. However, by choosing any option, you will be redirected to pages that do not have any match with the supposed program. “Apparently, the intention is to display ads, since all kinds of ads appear throughout the stages that invite people to click. In some cases related to financial aid and request to complete forms with personal data”, adds the report.

At the end, the victim is asked how they want the “benefit” delivered, but the links only lead to unknown pages. | (Photo: WeLiveSecurity)

This possible cyber-scam has also been reported in other countries. “After analyzing the domain and doing some open source research, we discovered that the same fraud pattern has been reported by users from other Latin American countries, such as Costa Rica or Guatemala. In all cases the same image is used but a certain part of the message is personalized for each country. In some cases they do not use the name of solidarity income, but refer to aid such as school support for the purchase of materials, food aid, student vouchers, etc.”, indicates.

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What should I do if I get a cyber scam?

According to the researchers’ recommendations, the user himself must learn to recognize these messages. “Scams through WhatsApp are very common and hardly cease to exist as long as they are effective for criminals and people continue to click on these links that arrive unexpectedly and share these messages. Therefore, knowing how they work, avoiding opening links that come through messages that offer benefits or prizes that are too good to be true, is the first step”, he assures.

In this case, everything seems to indicate that the sole objective of those behind this false program is to get clicks, probably to obtain income through advertising. However, there is a possibility that this tactic will change and it will be scamming by asking for money in exchange for a greater profit, or trying to install malware on the devices.

Source: Elcomercio