The Cybersecurity Center has been notified of recruitment scams sent in the WhatsApp messaging application. The victim may even be paid money for the work done first.
Traficom’s Cyber Security Center warns of Whatsapp scams where the victim is trying to be recruited for work. Jukka Lehtinen
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s Cybersecurity Center warns in his weekly review About recruitment scams spreading on Whatsapp.
The Cyber Security Center says that during the week it received contacts about a scam campaign in which the recipients of the messages are being recruited into an attractive-sounding scheme.
The person may be promised, for example, remote work, flexible working hours, a generous salary and simple work that does not require extensive training or previous work experience.
The recruiter may appear in the name of a genuine company and, to increase trust, provide a genuine link to that organization’s website. In some cases, the recruiter has used the Linkedin profile of a recruiter who actually works for the company in question.
If the person has taken up the scammers’ offer, they may even have been paid small sums of money, which aims to oblige the victim to continue with more confidence than before.
According to the Cybersecurity Center, the course of the scam and the content of the promises given can vary greatly in different contacts. However, the cases are united by the fact that at some point the employee is asked to make money transfers via a cryptocurrency platform. At first, the amounts are small, but they gradually increase as the scam progresses.
– Internationally, there have been reports of significant financial damages, says the Cyber Security Center in its press release.
If you have given your information or money to a Whatsapp recruiter, the Cyber Security Center recommends that you immediately contact your bank, file a criminal report and to report abuse to Whatsapp as well.
Source: Cyber Security Center