The Canary Islands Observatory of Computer Crimes has warned of a scam on social networks, where the alleged raffle of "A free trip to Lanzarote" was being announced. "The attractiveness of the advertisement makes many users fall for this type of scam and sign up for these fraudulent raffles," they point out from the Observatory, which emphasizes that many users are unaware of "the risks involved in browsing cyberspace."
"The scammers take advantage of these circumstances to make well-designed fraudulent promotional campaigns, which attract potential victims, to get them to bite on increasingly sophisticated scams," they add.
In the case of this latest scam, they explain that it was spread through Whatsapp, which is one of the ways that is being used for "phishing attacks." This method uses deception to get the victim to end up revealing personal information, such as their social security number or passwords; or financial information, including credit card or bank account details.
"These promotional campaigns are advertised through fake websites and promoted through social networks, especially Whatsapp, becoming viral and reaching thousands of people who share it among their contacts," they specify.
According to the Canary Islands Observatory of Computer Crimes, that is what was happening with this fake campaign that promised a free trip. "Look at this! A free trip to Lanzarote. I've already signed up. Sign up too!" said the message that was being spread by Whatsapp.
"Once the victim's attention is drawn, they click on the link in the message, redirecting them to a fake website, in this case http://lanzarotevacaciones.info/, where they must register with their full name and the city where the victim resides. Next, it redirects us to another page that we must unlock by sharing this fraudulent promotion with our contacts via WhatsApp. And, in this way, by sharing, the scam of the alleged raffle of a free trip to Lanzarote goes viral," they detail.
To avoid this type of cyberattack, the Observatory recommends "never clicking on links that redirect us to fake websites with the intention of obtaining our personal data in order to impersonate us," as well as "reporting the existence of fake websites to the relevant authorities."
