Where it all starts!
It was just a few days ago. I got a Whatsapp notification from my friend Naomie.
I open it. She forwarded me a message that she received that said the following:
« In celebration of its 93rd birthday, Lufthansa is giving away 200 free business class tickets to a destination of your choice. »
As appealing as the offer seems and even though I decided to click the link, I was skeptical.
And for good reason. When I click the link, I see that it opens a look-alike Lufthansa website, which prompts you to answer 3 simple questions, such as “Have you reserved with Lufthansa in the past? », and instructs you to share and like the promotion on Facebook in order to win.
Even worse, so you don’t think twice about sharing and liking the promotion, the look-alike Lufthansa website also embeds a Facebook widget that displays other likes and comments to make you feel confident and safe.
Easy, isn’t it? Too easy…
I can smell the scam from miles away and it doesn’t take me long to discover the catch.
It was all in the URL. When I took a closer look, I noticed the ‘L’ in Lufthansa.com is truncated and looks more like a beheaded L.
At first glance, this is not easy to see and unfortunately, according to Facebook, more than 17,259 people fell victim to this scam.
I know what you’re thinking: a like? a share? What’s the risk?
In this case, liking and sharing leads to numerous unwanted consequences and dangers (as described below), that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy…
[su_service title= »Scenario 1″ icon= »icon: user-secret »]
Sometimes, malicioius website will ask you to enter your phone number
to validate your participation, to which you would have subscribed
to whatever kind of paid daily service, in any case something
very expensive for you.
[su_service title= »Scenario 2″ icon= »icon: user-secret »]
Sometimes, you are led to download malicious applications or browser extensions that enable access to all your browser data, connections,
passwords, and credit card numbers (so now you finally grasp the deep meaning of the word Phishing.)
This tiny little scam seems harmless, but every day tens of thousands of people are victimized and even sometimes willingly and wholeheartedly participate in spreading the epidemic.
But don’t worry, here are some tips to avoid such consequences.
