17/07/2022
Many phishing scams are circulating on social media, especially instant messaging apps. For those that don't know what phishing is, phishing is the practice of getting internet users to divulge personal information to fraudulent websites, which are later used for malicious activities by cybercriminals. The image attached to this post was sent to me by someone for analysis. In this instance, the criminals aimed to get unsuspecting users to hand in their details for a supposed "grant" from Nigeria's farmers' association. This is a scam, and below are the reasons:
1- The link in the message " ng22-farmers2022 {dot}big-offer{dot}online is fake. The real link for Nigeria's farmers' association is https://afan.ng/ . If you take a closer look at the scammers' link, you will see that it contained " ng22-farmers2022". The rationale behind this is to trick you into believing you are interacting with the actual farmers' association link.
2- I followed the link to see the information the scammers requested. However, clicking on suspicious links is often not advisable because advanced attacks require only a click to compromise your system. I avoided this by using a sandbox environment. Nonetheless, following the link revealed that the criminals requested sensitive information, including bank account numbers and BVN. Such information could be used to access a victim's bank account (see the second image).
3- Another feature of phishing campaigns is that they are only registered for the attack period. One way to find how old a domain is to use sites like https://whois.domaintools.com/ . These sites give you an estimate of how old a domain is. On performing a whois check on the scammers' site, my analysis revealed that it was just created 26 days, a clear red flag right there.
Tips to stay safe online:
1-Always check the link to make sure it is going to where it says it is going
2-If a message or advert sound too good to be true, then it probably is
3-Avoid clicking links from unknown contacts
Lastly, be vigilant; there are many criminals out there.
