Friend's Hijacked Accounts

#cybersecurity #drcybereye #scam #spam #phishing

Hello. My name is Dr. CyberEye. I break down complicated cybersecurity stuff and explain it in a simple way to the average user.

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There are a number of applications that are used to communicate and network with individuals and friends. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram are just a few. In recent months, Signal has also gotten a bit of notoriety for certain reasons within the current United States administration.

But that is for another post and another time...

One trend that I have been seeing in recent days have been random messages from contacts of "friends" in my Telegram application. I received three messages in one day from TWO SEPARATE people, in which they appear to be coming from someone that I know and is already in my contacts list. See the image below:

Of course I have blacked out my friends' names to protect their privacy. However, what happened here?

The average user might look at these messages and respond back, turning down the offer for the random 1-2 hour homebased work, or inquiring for further details. As this is coming from their "friend" on Telegram, it has to be safe, right?

Wrong.

What likely happened is both of these individual's accounts were compromised. The attacker is trying to leverage the familiarity of the victim's personal network to try to gain a foothold into whatever scam they are trying to push. What NOT to do? DO NOT click on any links provided or even respond to these messages in any way. Rather, the correct course of action in this scenario would be to reach out to the friend or individual on another medium (if you have their cell phone, this would be ideal) to let them know their account appears to have been compromised and it would be a good idea for them to change their password.

This particular attack has likely spawned to multiple contacts in my list because they might have clicked on something they shouldn't have, the attacker gained access to their account, and then spammed all the contacts in their networks.

Note: If you receive these notices, it does not mean that you YOURSELF have been breached. Rather this is a likely chance that your friends have been hacked. Exercise great caution that you do not fall prey by not responding or clicking on anything, even if they're your friends on these applications. Zero Trust.

Stay safe out there!

Dr. C