“Is that you in this movie”? Have you received such a message? Don’t click on the link. Here’s how to defend yourself

A message with such content can make the heart of many people beat a little faster. Especially if she is sensitive about protecting her own image. And that’s what criminals prey on. A moment of inattention, mindless clicking on a link and entering data ends up losing an account on one of the social networking sites, and sometimes also money.

The old scam is back. No, you’re not in the video

Scammers apparently again send links leading to crafted websites. They use old but proven methods, including content messages “is that you in the video”, “isn’t that you in the picture” etc. The message is almost always accompanied by an emoticon, suggesting that the alleged video is funny or compromising. At the end, there is also a link to an unknown website. Vigilance of the victim is additionally lulled by the fact that this information is sent by her friends on social networks. In fact, the messages are of course cybercriminals who, after taking over an account, e.g. on Facebook, send them en masse to all friends of the owner of the stolen profile. The technique is effective because it makes us mindlessly click on a link to a crafted page under the influence of emotions, which requires logging in with a Facebook password. It is only after logging in that the victim realizes that he has been scammed. In the meantime, criminals are already taking over the victim’s Facebook account.

Cyber ​​crooks attack. What can you lose and how can you defend yourself?

Losing access to your profile is quite a serious problem (recovering it is often impossible), and scammers usually use a stolen account in two ways – to sending spam (including further news about the video) to the victim’s friends and to scams on BLIK. The latter method is especially dangerous because it involves losing money. A cybercriminal usually asks to borrow a small amount (e.g. PLN 20-30) by sending a BLIK code to withdraw money from an ATM (or pay for purchases). The lack of money, in turn, is explained by, for example, losing a wallet from a phone with a banking application. Using the code, he then withdraws PLN 1,000 or PLN 2,000 from the ATM.

How to protect yourself from this type of fraud? Above all, stay calm and don’t get carried away by your emotions. We should never click on unknown or suspicious-looking links to alleged sensational news, in-store promotions or free shopping vouchers. Even if the message is from a friend. The content of the fake link must always be different from the link to the real page of the company. Sometimes it is completely different, and sometimes criminals change only one or two letters to lull their vigilance (e.g. https://facebok.com instead of https://facebook.com). In the case of requests for a small loan in the form of a transfer or a BLIK code, it is always best to contact the person who asks for help directly. It’s best to just give her a call. If you receive a phone call from a bank consultant, it is worth confirming its authenticity (they should know, for example, the type of account we have) or hang up and call the real hotline.