Phone card survey latest online scam
THE Ministry of Interior’s department of information technology called on social media users to be cautious online and maintain their vigilance against a new scam by fraudsters who claim they will provide people with a 50,000 riel in phone card from H&M if they answer survey questions and share the survey link with their friends.
The department warned that a message that has been widely shared on social media saying “Win 50,000 riel Phone Card from H&M company” was not legitimate and was actually a scam using a fake website in order to gather data from individuals used to hack their accounts or to transmit viruses or malware to their devices.
“The scammers may trick the victims into answering questions by lying about a reward and they also trick the victims into sharing this link with their friends by giving the hacker permission to use the victim’s account with apps like Facebook Messenger to automatically share this scam to their contact list,” the department said.
The scammers can also use this trick for other malicious purposes such as using fraudulent websites to steal their victims’ login credentials for social media or even bank accounts.
“Therefore, please be careful and do not share or click on these links. Delete them from your inbox immediately to avoid any problems as mentioned above,” it said.
Anti-cybercrime department director Chea Pov told The Post on September 15 that cybercrime was currently on the rise due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which has led to loss of employment and tougher economic conditions in many countries.
Furthermore, the restrictions on activities outside of the home such as curfews and lockdowns in various parts of the world have led to more people – both scammers and victims – spending a lot more time online, he said.
“With more people online more often there are more opportunities for people to be cheated because some of them may not be savvy enough about these scams to know what to look for or how to protect themselves,” he said.
Pov urged people to use technology with caution and never click on links that do not have a clear and trusted source. Anyone encountering such activity online or who is a victim to such scams should report the incident to the authorities promptly.