IMessage messages try to get the scammer to contact you on Whatsapp.
The scam message promises work. Illustration. Adobe Stock / AOP / Cyber Security Center
Iltalehti spoke yesterday about scam messages being spread through iMessage. Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s Cyber Security Center security expert Max Mäkinen says the center has received dozens of notifications over the weekend and early this week.
Mäkinen says that messages are sent from e-mail addresses using Apple’s iMessage.
– Messages are from email addresses that are cluttered. However, the message itself shows the phone number you are asked to contact. There is a lot of variation in the area codes of these Whatsapp numbers, and we have not detected any specific direction in which we are trying to get the destination to contact us, Mäkinen says.
The messages are written in Finnish, but they are linguistically bad. Mäkinen considers it possible that the messages have been translated, for example, with the help of Google Translator.
According to Mäkinen, at this stage there is no more detailed information about what the scammers are aiming for with the messages, but similar scams have been reported in the international media before. In Singapore in particular, citizens have been widely warned.
– Whatsapp messaging has led, for example, to the distribution of malware and scams in which the victim performs various tasks for which no compensation is paid. It has been reported in international news that those who fell for the scam have also been used as money mules, Mäkinen says.
This is what the scam message looks like. Cyber Security Center
Because messages are sent from email addresses, anyone can be behind them. According to Mäkinen, Whatsapp has been chosen as a discussion platform probably because it is the easiest way for scammers to act.
– We have received a lot of announcements, which indicates that the messages have been sent in a wide distribution. The messages are hardly precisely targeted in any way. This is probably a scammer who performs a search shoot in the same way as email scams. It’s easy to send large numbers of messages, and if a few recipients grab your bait, it’s profitable for the scammer.
Why certain people receive messages is unclear. Mäkinen estimates that their phone number may have been leaked in the past or that their number is public on either social media or the number service.