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WhatsApp It is one of the tools that arouses the most interest in cybercriminals. Recently the Internet Security Office – dependent on the National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe) –
has alerted about a new campaign in which scammers impersonate the messaging ‘app’ owned by Facebook – which has 2 billion users worldwide – to infect their devices and steal information from them.
As in so many other cases, the scam start with an email in which cybercriminals impersonate WhatsApp. To provoke the interest of the user, it is identified with the subject: ‘Backup of WhatsApp messages * 913071605 Nº (xxxxx)’, although from Incibe it is not ruled out that there are other emails with different subjects.
In the message, it contains writing errors and mistakes, cybercriminals invite the user to click on a link to download, supposedly, a backup copy of their conversations. Incibe notes that the date of issue that appears at the bottom of the message is usually very close to the day the email is received, or even the same day. Although it could also appear out of date.
Likewise, the institution indicates that the domain of the sender’s address does not belong to WhatsApp, although there could be other cases in which they pretend to belong to the company itself, since this field is easy to falsify.
The malicious file is downloaded after clicking on a link that contains the message, although it could also be displayed as an attached file. Be that as it may, the code, as noted, is of the Trojan type; so it is intended to steal the victim’s information and credentials.
From Incibe it is recalled that, in case of doubt about the legitimacy of an email, you should not click on any link, or download any attachments. To check the veracity, you can contact the company or the service that supposedly sent you the email, always through their official customer service channels.
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