Specialists from the Segurmática company alerted users of mobile phone in Cuba about new scams linked to the unjustified decrease in available balance on their lines after receiving several complaints from people in this situation.
After analyzing the platforms on which the deceptive ads were inserted, the experts opined that the fact is related to a type of social engineering, according to a report of the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
warns @AVSegurmatica about mobile balance scams #Cuba https://t.co/dENF8rm1WB
– Agramonte Chain (@cadenagramonte) March 14, 2023
The method uses interesting advertisements whose access generates the sending of hundreds of international messages by applying a cost to the client’s mobile balance rate, adds the publication.
Ernesto Mario Padrón Ávila, a specialist from the Security Laboratory, told the outlet that it was not a malicious code, but rather a link or route where the ads are inserted that show that it is not real information from the Telecommunications Company of Cuba SA (Etecsa), let alone an offer from its official site.
He added that the reduction of the mobile balance is carried out by the user himself from the moment he shares a dubious link, downloads applications that contain ads or is fed directly from the Internet, trusting in gifts, raffles or misleading advertising from unofficial pages, the information refers to. .
Aliuska Infante, the entity’s Technical Support specialist, recommended that customers avoid opening suspicious attachments on their cell phones, filling out forms, sharing dubious links, and responding to strangers’ emails, as this can generate calls, text messages, and email connections. automatically.
The ACN recalls that in recent days a scam was promoted as if it were an ETECSA raffle for International Women’s Day, a procedure that at the end asked people to insert their email to notify them how to receive the prize.
Padrón Ávila explained that social engineering is a fraudulent form of subliminal manipulation, and that the term brings together several techniques for that purpose used by cybercriminals with the purpose of obtaining confidential information from users through deception maneuvers or posing as someone else. person.
