Warning about Telegram account hijacking scam in Vietnam

(Dan Tri) - Many Telegram users in Vietnam are becoming targets of scammers who want to take over their accounts. This scam is not new, but many people still fall into the trap.

  Besides Facebook Messenger, Zalo and Viber, Telegram is one of the free internet messaging applications commonly used in Vietnam. It is estimated that there are currently about 12 million Telegram users in our country. High security, end-to-end encrypted data and difficulty in intercepting messages are the advantages of Telegram compared to other free messaging applications. However, recently, a scam campaign targeting Telegram users in Vietnam has caused many people to lose their accounts.

A series of messages were sent to the user's Telegram account to warn (Screenshot).

According to many Dan Tri readers, they received a series of messages sent to their Telegram accounts with the following content: "Dear Telegram users. We are committed to protecting your privacy. Please do the following to help us keep you safe. Due to recent frequent attacks by hackers on Telegram users, account security has been improved to protect individuals. Please follow the prompts to re-link the relevant mobile phone number to avoid unnecessary losses for you." Along with that is a website link and a warning: "If the relevant mobile phone number verification is not retrieved, the system will force the account to be closed after 24 hours." Worried that their accounts would be locked, many users clicked on the website sent in the warning message, not knowing that this was a trick of scammers. The website sent was actually a fake website, with an interface similar to the Telegram login page, but created by scammers. This website will ask users to enter their phone number to log in to their Telegram account. If users enter their phone number on the login website and press the "Next" button, the scammers' system will immediately use the phone number declared by the user to send to Telegram and request a new OTP password.

The content of the warning message, along with a link asking users to access. The fake website has an interface identical to the Telegram login page, causing many people to fall into the trap (Screenshot).

The Telegram application allows users to request an OTP code to log into their accounts on new devices without a password. Therefore, after obtaining the phone number to log into the Telegram account, scammers only need the application's OTP code to log in and take over the user's account. When users see the OTP code sent to their account from Telegram itself, they do not suspect anything, because they think that the above login website is really Telegram's, so they enter this OTP code on the scammers' website. But as soon as the user enters the OTP code, their Telegram account will be immediately taken over. In fact, when Telegram sends the OTP code to the user's phone number, the application warns: "Do not give this code to anyone, even if they say they are from Telegram. This code can be used to log into the Telegram account. If you did not request this code by logging into another device, ignore this message." However, many gullible users did not pay attention to Telegram's warning when the OTP code was sent, so they declared this code on the website, resulting in their accounts being taken over by bad guys. After taking over Telegram accounts, bad guys will use them for fraudulent purposes, appropriating assets or exploiting private, personal content in Telegram messages for blackmail purposes... In fact, the above scam is not new. In addition to Telegram, scammers also apply similar tricks to take over social network accounts such as Facebook, Zalo... Losing social network accounts not only causes users to have their private, important messages read by bad guys, but can also cause them to lose their reputation because bad guys use these accounts for fraudulent purposes, borrowing money... Therefore, users should be vigilant against the scams of bad guys to protect the safety of their social network accounts.

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-manh-so/canh-bao-chieu-lua-chiem-doat-tai-khoan-telegram-tai-viet-nam-20240802150905592.htm