Scammers never stop surprising you with new techniques and different types of attempts to trick you into a trap. On this occasion, I received a message via WhatsApp that I had never seen before, although, as usual, there are clear signs that reveal from the start that it is a scam. Even so, it is a deception that could convince at first, especially people who have some investment or who are in the crypto world, so it is worth mentioning it here to warn others about this ploy.
This Tuesday, I received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number, with the prefix +265, corresponding to the African country of Malawi. I was surprised by the decision of the owner of this WhatsApp number, I don’t know if he was conscious or not, to publicly display his profile picture, which allows us to identify a man, although we don’t know if the person in the image is the real owner and author of this scam, or if it is simply a random photo.
The message reads: “Alejandro, your account has been opened. Username: dky87 Password: tt87366 USDT balance: 2,224,530.00 Please keep it safe. [troetw.com]».
The aim, it seems, is to make some innocent person believe that they have been mistakenly given access to someone else’s account, where there are more than two million dollars waiting for you to take advantage of them. It’s the same old story, similar to those emails that tell you about a succulent business opportunity or an unexpected inheritance, variants of the classic Nigerian Prince.
To save you the trouble, I went to the website indicated in the message, to see what I found on the other side. What I see is a website that, although it has an HTTPS security protocol, is at first glance a very poorly made emulation of some kind of cryptocurrency exchange. A banner with poorly sized images is located at the top of the page, with a list of cryptocurrencies below. There are two buttons: register and log in, which would prompt the recipient of the message to try to log in with the keys that have been given, to see if there really are two million dollars waiting on the other side.
Scammers keep innovating
We don’t know what happens if these credentials are entered, but it’s not a big mystery. Most likely, we’ll find ourselves with a fake interface where a fictitious sum of money is displayed. By providing more of our personal data or trying to withdraw this money through some means, the cybercriminals on the other end will have what they need to steal our money. Possibly, the portal will allow you to enter your bank details in order to withdraw this false amount, bait with which they would gain access to our bank account.
It is truly curious that they continue to try to carry out these types of scams, when the simple fact of receiving an unsolicited contact from a Malawi number should be more than enough to ignore the message. Still, if they continue to put effort into it, it must be because someone, somewhere, falls for it. Don’t be the unfortunate one and take extra precautions every time an unknown contact speaks to you on WhatsApp.
