Fake airplane tickets: how to recognize deception and what to do if you get caught

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you come across a message on the Web that a well-known airline is giving away free tickets, be vigilant. Chances are good that this is a deception that will backfire on you.

In the last few days, I have seen many reposts of the page "Emirates gives 2 tickets" (they also report a scam on behalf of Aeroflot). This, of course, is a wiring. But I see a repost of such pages not from my grandmother (my grandmother chose a radical way to protect against cybercriminals and does not use a computer), but from people from banks, investment and charitable foundations and even family offices (that is, people who have access to money and sensitive information). I'll tell you in more detail how it threatens.

How to understand that you are being deceived

First, you get a link via WhatsApp or click on a Facebook repost and go to a site like emirates-free-2-ticket-com-gibber-dot-com, which should be alarming. Those with whom we communicate a little more often already have an acquired subconscious paranoid barrier and do not follow such links.

When you click a link like this, you are guided through several landing sites.

In the process you watch ads, it is likely that an attempt will be made to infect your device with a Trojan or other malware.

In parallel, you will be answering questions like "Do you really want to get 2 free tickets from Emirates?" and “Confirm that you are an adult”.

At some point, in order to receive tickets, you will need to send a mailing to 10 of your contacts and repost on your Facebook page. In some cases, you will be prompted to authorize your account in order to take over this issue and not make it difficult for you. In any case, you will involve your friends in the fraudulent scheme. In addition, it is likely that after logging in to your Facebook account, your information will be sold to advertising agencies, but this is the lesser of the incipient problems.

After your computer is infected, your account is authorized, you watched ads, invited friends and repost, you will see the message “Sorry, you did not win. Lucky next time."

What does it threaten

Thanks to your naivety, the people behind this scheme hit the jackpot:

1. If you use the online bank through this device, money will be stolen from it.
2. If it is a computer on a corporate network, money will be stolen from your company through your computer.
3. Your computer will be connected to a botnet to organize automatic DDOS attacks or spam.
4. Your computer will be used for bitcoin mining, for storing prohibited materials (for example, not entirely legal pornography), for hiding traces of crimes (for example, as a proxy server); It is not at all necessary that the same people will be doing this: access to your computer can be sold on the black market for 1-2 dollars.
5. The device will be scanned for compliance with certain criteria (for example, 1C files, databases, etc.), and sooner or later your information will be stolen.
6. If your phone is infected, in addition to all of the above, your correspondence in messengers, as well as all photos and notes, will be stolen from you.
7. If among the photos there are spicy ones, they will begin to blackmail you or demand a ransom.
8. If you are a particularly interesting person (and this can also be understood almost automatically), access to your device will be sold on the black market to specialists of a different profile, and then real problems will begin (espionage, wiretapping, competitive intelligence, competitive struggle, leaks in the media and others), and you will learn about it after the fact.

FAQ

Who needs me? I have no money either

They know how to monetize you. Not one thing, so another.

I wanted free tickets (or was led to a similar scheme), what should I do now?

Scan the system with an antivirus, it will reveal some of the infections. Install all security updates (Windows) or update the system to the latest version (Mac, iOS, Android).

So the antivirus saves?

Doesn't save. But it must be (with an active license and updated databases) in order to cut off the most common threats.

What besides antivirus?

If you have anything to lose, you need to change your approach to cybersecurity. Conduct training for employees, conduct training for the family, audit systems, ask the right questions to your IT specialist, supply special equipment to combat targeted attacks.

But most importantly, change your attitude, my friends, the threat is real. Your carelessness is a hot commodity on the black market, and the volume of this market today is billions and billions of dollars.