One of the last ones that circulates through the telephones of Spain has nothing to do with phishing, although certainly the method is similar. It also has nothing to do with injecting malware into our phone. No, this time it has to do with tempting us to offer us a good job and great benefits in exchange for a couple of concessions: either obtain our information for future scams, or offer us illegal activities.
I wish it were true
From the outset, the message reaches us signed by a strange address that tries to convince us that it is perfectly legitimate, although with little success for those who are somewhat used to moving around in these environments. It usually contains some mention of a foreign country, such as the United States, or different brands. It is not strange, then, that some users end up biting.
In this message, which was received this morning by two of our colleagues at Webedia, we are offered a job. But not just any job. The message in question tells us about a “regular part-time / full-time job” (the expression should already make us suspicious) and about a daily salary that ranges between 20 and 150 euros. Right at the end of this message, a WhatsApp web address is included so that we click and a conversation is automatically opened. And in case we have doubts, a phone number to open the conversation manually. It is not that we do not trust the link or that our SMS app blocks suspicious URLs.
As the Civil Guard itself indicates, “the objective is to obtain information in order to use it to carry out new frauds or involve users in illegal activities, such as muleteers.” In other words, through the conversation that we are asked to open, and with the excuse that it is a job selection, They ask us for personal data in order to complete “our file”. This information may be used later, for example, to write to our number and directly tell us about you.
⚠️ #ALERT❗
Detected SMS of job offers with very advantageous conditions. The objective is to obtain information in order to use it to carry out new frauds or involve users in illegal activities, such as muleteers. #Don’tPiques https://t.co/ok23DthlTC pic.twitter.com/r8farlVAHN– Civil Guard 🇪🇸 (@guardiacivil) April 18, 2022
We usually recommend that you should never provide personal information to strangers unless we are, in fact, on a face-to-face appointment and can attest that it is a real process. And we recommend it again. The Civil Guard emphasizes offering illegal activities Well, if from the other side they detect that we have significant economic problems, or that we have been unemployed for a long time, they can offer us all kinds of very economically advantageous deals, but with a lot of risk and illegal.
In case you receive such a message, We recommend you delete it automatically and block the sender. It is likely that once we receive it, we will receive it again in the future, because it will mean that our phone appears in some stolen or purchased database, so they will continue to harass us with it. What has been said, delete, block, and, if possible, report it through the Spanish Data Protection Agency. Or even go to Police cybercrime so they can start (or complete) an investigation.
Remember. No one writes random SMS messages to strangers to offer them good jobs with stratospheric salaries. I wish it were true.