A scam message received on Facebook Messenger. EXPAT MEDIA

New fake prize scam targets UAE residents on Facebook Messenger

UAE residents have complained about a new scam targeting Facebook Messenger users and luring them with a fake prize of Dh25,000. The scam messages from UAE Prize and similar fake pages have proliferated recently on Facebook Messenger. The scam messages claim to give away Dh25,000 in cash prize to the winner. The message also asks target victims to register their phone number and to click on an unknown link to receive a so-called confirmation code via SMS. “I received more than three similar scam messages on Facebook Messenger since Sunday. They’re all from UAE Winners, UAE New and UAE – Prize. They all said I won Dh25,000 and named a ridiculous competition that I had to register my details. No logic at all. If I won, then they should already have my details! I have already reported the accounts to Facebook,” said a Dubai resident who requested anonymity. Another Dubai resident said the link previously took him to a registration site, which has been deactivated as of Tuesday (March 7). Authorities in the UAE have repeatedly warned residents against responding to such messages, saying these are one of many ways that online scammers target victims.

How scammers use fake prizes and surveys to target victims

According to experts, fraudsters trap their victims by distributing invitations to participate in surveys or prizes. Each offer contains a link leading to a phishing website. For “lead generation,” scammers use all possible legitimate digital marketing means, including contextual advertising, advertising on legal and completely rogue sites, SMS, mailouts, and pop-up notifications. To build trust with their victims, scammers register look-alike domain names to the official ones. Less frequently, they were also seen adding links to the calendar and posts on social networks. After clicking the targeted link, a user gets in the so-called traffic cloaking, which enables cybercriminals to display different content to different users, based on certain user parameters. But this destination “branded survey” page takes very long to download. This is because the victims find themselves in a long chain of redirects, during which scammers gather information about their session, including country, time zone, language, IP, browser, and etc. The content on the final page will be determined based on what was learned about the user and tailored as much as possible to their possible interests. The final scam link is customized to a specific user and can be opened only once. This complicates the detection of such links, which inevitably leads to the scam’s longer life cycle, and hampers the takedown and investigations. At the final stage, the user is asked to answer questions to receive a prize from a well-known brand and to fill out a form asking for their personal data, which is allegedly needed to receive the prize. The data required usually includes the full name, email, postal address, phone number, bank card data, including expiration date and CVV. ICA/Expat Media
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