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WhatsApp scams; you could be the next victim
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe
A sudden surge in WhatsApp money-swindling scams has prompted warning alerts from regulatory authorities in Sri Lanka, following complaints from several people that their accounts have been hacked.
The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) sent out warning alerts regarding a money swindling scheme taking over WhatsApp after Samagi Jana Balawegaya Colombo District candidate and former parliamentarian Mujibur Rahuman took to Facebook to warn his contacts against the hackers impersonating him on WhatsApp.
Hackers that managed to access the former MP’s Whatsapp account had sent out messages to his contacts with requests for money. According to the post, many people had responded to the messages with fund transfers to the account details mentioned.
“We have received about 24 complaints relating to this over the last five days,” said Charuka Damunupola, Senior Information Security Engineer at SLCERT.
He noted that the difficulty with this scam was the fact that account recovery took about 72 hours. “In this window, the hackers have more than enough time to do quite a bit of damage.” Hackers that carry out scams through WhatsApp generally enable two-factor authentication the moment they get control of the account. This prolongs the recovery process as a WhatsApp registration takes 72 hours after a reset.
According to Mr. Damunupola, SLCERT sends out regular alerts of this nature based on trends that are brought to their attention. “The former MP getting hacked got our attention, especially because he was a public figure, so we decided to be
proactive.” He also added that SLCERT only provides technical support in the recovery process in an advisory role. “We usually facilitate the complaint process with the police but do not intervene in the investigative processes beyond identifying the issue.” The recovery of money that is stolen, however, is rare.
Mr. Damunupola said that as transactions were now almost immediate, there was no mechanism to recover what had been lost unless the culprits were arrested.
SLCERT has received 1,100 complaints on internet scams so far this year.
However, others that were hacked claimed that the police response to these claims was often lethargic.
Veteran journalist and
Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum president N.M. Ameen noted that hackers were using the WhatsApp profiles they hacked to gain access to more contacts to hack. “I received a call telling me about a meeting while I was distracted, and my activism involves attending several meetings, so I had given them an OTP through which they managed to get into my account.”
Mr. Ameen had begun receiving calls from his contacts informing him that requests for money had been sent out. “One friend called me saying they transferred Rs. 100,000 and asking me if I was okay,” said Mr. Ameen, who noted that he has thousands of people in his phone contact app. Mr. Ameen’s friend had then attempted to file a complaint at the Rajagiriya Police but was redirected to the Cyber Crime Division after much to and fro.
“The complaint management is done very badly, and the process is unnecessarily cumbersome,” Mr. Ameen said. He noted that only one of his friends had sent money through to the scammer, while he warned his contacts through SMS and with help from his friends.
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