In recent days at least two very dangerous WhatsApp messages have been turning: hackers use the name of Coop, but aim at the credit card.
The historic chain of large-scale retail trade Coop warns: "do not open messages of this type, protect your credit card data". The reference is to yet another WhatsApp message promising a Coop voucher of 100 euros to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the chain, which is coupled with another message about a non-existent gift card. Two messages in a few days, both very dangerous.
A script already seen and revised, even recently for example with the fake Esselunga promotion (which shares exactly the same pattern with the message on the Coop gift card), which is repeated this time exploiting the Coop name. It's not a strange phenomenon: since the first lockdown for Covid-19 all online commerce has exploded and more and more Italians do their shopping (including food shopping) online. The threshold of attention, therefore, has dropped a lot because potential victims are more used to receive messages from supermarket chains, as once they were used to find the old flyer of supermarket offers in the mailbox. If you're not careful with these dangerous WhatsApp messages, however, you're risking a lot because the goal of those who send them is always the same: to get their hands on our credit card.
Fake WhatsApp message from Coop: 100 euro shopping voucher
The first of the two fake WhatsApp messages from Coop refers to a 100 euro shopping voucher as a gift, to celebrate the brand's anniversary, which can be withdrawn by following a link in the text of the message itself.
The link points to a phishing site in which the user is asked to enter their credit card details, in order to pay the 100 euro gift. Of course, the purpose of the sender of the message is not to pay money into the card, but to withdraw it to the detriment of the owner.
Fake Coop WhatsApp message: the gift card
The second fake Coop message that is circulating on WhatsApp, however, is the twin of the Esselunga one that we described in recent days: the link in this case points to a malicious site, in which the user is asked to enter at least 5 WhatsApp groups or 20 contacts and, immediately after, asks for the usual credit card.
Exactly as in the case of the fake Esselunga message here the fraud is more elaborate: the site faithfully replicates the logos and graphics of the imitated brand and, what's more, contains an additional step (the request for WhatsApp numbers) to automatically multiply the possible victims.