New phishing scams are targeting the Romanian users of highly popular message apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, according to a statement from the Romanian National Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT-RO).

The scams aim to make the users reveal some of their personal data, CERT-RO warns.

Several users from Romania have alerted CERT-RO about the existence of several phishing scams that spread through message apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

The scam message is usually received from someone the user has in his list of contacts, which increases the victim’s confidence in the source. The message looks like an online contest, making the users click on the link included in the text. They are usually redirected to a page that looks like an online questionnaire, being encouraged to answer a few questions.

At present, there are two types of scams. One of them offers vouchers that can be used for shopping at retailers such as Kaufland or eMag, while the other one offers the possibility to win plane tickets from Tarom, KLM or Lufthansa.

The attackers are using this type of scams to obtain more information about the user, such as his name, email or address, but also to obtain some money from him by making the user subscribe to different services in exchange for a fee. The users may also install viruses if they click on the link in the message, or even help spread the message to other friends in their list of contacts.

Companies advise customers to be careful when receiving such messages, as these kind of campaigns or contests are usually promoted on the companies’ websites or social media pages.

A similar phishing scam targeted the Romanian WhatsApp users in May. At that time, the victims received a message asking to “verify” the account data in order to continue to benefit from the free service.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com