Finland, Europe Brief News – The scam victim also fears his friends will lose money to an “incomprehensibly good scammer.” Restoring your Facebook account has proven to be laborious.
Messages from the scammer: Hello, can you give me your mobile phone number? Thank you! I entered the competition, sending a text message. If you receive a message with a code, send it to me. Okay?
In the first step of the scam, the scammer asks for the victim’s phone number.
Paula, 67, received a message from a relative on Sunday asking for Paula’s phone number. Paula gave it because the message came via Facebook Messenger directly from a relative who doesn’t have a phone number.
A few messages later, Paula’s Facebook account was hacked.
“I really thought all the time I was talking in Messenger that I was talking to this guy. But it was that scam all the time,” Paula says.
Paula has learned to be careful with messages in foreign languages and written in a bad Finnish language, but it was not enough this time.
“I wondered if it was a good Finnish language. It was somehow such an incomprehensibly good cheater,” Paula says.
Paula does not want to appear in the story under her last name because of the matter’s sensitivity.
“My sister is younger and works on the machine, but she also went to the wire. Even the mini said it was a super fine scam. Even young people have gone to the lever here,” Paula is amazed.
Because the ultimate goal of the scam is to get money from the victims, Paula fears for her friends.
“Next week is retirement day, and I have a terrible concern about how old grandparents can go then,” Paula sighs.
The scammer is fishing on a Facebook account in hopes of new victims and bank details to get money.
Paula is not alone with her experience, as the Cyber Security Center of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency warned (you will move to another service) that this scam was widespread last week.
First, the victim is approached on behalf of a friend whose Facebook account has been hacked. The scammer asks the victim for a “participation code” delivered to the victim via text message. After giving the victim a phone number, the scammer asks the victim, for example, to take part in a joint contest where they can win money.
The scammer hacks the victim’s Facebook account. It requires the victim’s phone number and a verification code sent by Facebook, which the victim thinks is the participation code.
The scammer can start phishing bank information to redeem a “common profit” in the second step.
The bank information is not needed to distribute the winning pot but to clear the victim’s account.
Messages from the scammer and the victim: Hello, can you give me your mobile phone number? Thank you! I entered the competition, sending a text message. If you receive a message with a code, send it to me. Okay? I just sent you a message with a code. Thanks, wait 1 minute. Now let’s see what you get from the competition. Pat on the back! Together we won 8,100 euros. You won 4050 Euro. I won 4050 Euro.
Paula’s luck was that she didn’t provide bank details, even though the scammer stubbornly asked for online banking IDs and a bank card number.
The scammer only stopped when Paula said a “friend” could raise all the money herself and deliver half in cash to a common relative.
A few hours later, Paula realised that her Facebook account had been hacked and the scammer was sending scam messages in her name and to her friends.
“It’s annoying that my data is being misused.”
Paula’s money was saved, but the Facebook account is still being restored.
“I’ve been figuring out what kind of things for work, but it’s never been as awful as it is now!”
“It feels a little bad to be so stupid when you are hooked. But when I’m about to be 70, maybe this age can happen,” Paula says.
