Advisory 11

Priority Level: Medium

TLP Rating: Clear

Social Media Online Scams

CERT Vanuatu and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) provides the following advisory.

CERT Vanuatu (CERTVU) office has received reports regarding the above mentioned attacks on its constituents through social media (Facebook).

These fraudulent correspondences generally impersonate Telecom Vanuatu Limited (TVL) and Digicel Vanuatu’s name and logo. These online scams appear as promotional advertisement claimed to be authorised from the TVL or Digicel with promised reward to successful participant of the promotion. Therefore, we are putting out this advisory and awareness for all our constituents especially to those involved who need to be aware of such "Online Scam attacks".

What is it?

Online scams are sophisticated messages or fake online information, often using professional-looking brands and logos to look like they come from a business you already know. This can make it difficult at first sight to know what is real and what is fake. A scam message can be sent by email, SMS, dating sites, social networking sites, instant messaging or even through videophone communications like Skype or FaceTime.

This Facebook scam is categorised under “online scams” which is of similar to those seen below:

  1. Dating and Romance scam
  2. Fake Charity scam
  3. Fake online shopping scam
  4. Investment scam
  5. Phishing
  6. Remote access scam
  7. Threat base impersonation scam
  8. Unexpected money scam

We have include the below link for your further reading on the above-mentioned type of scams.

https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/protect-yourself/recover-when-things-go-wrong/scams

References

  1. https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/protect-yourself/recover-when-things-go-wrong/scams
  2. https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/get-help/protect-yourself-from-scams
  3. http://cert.gov.vu/index.php/services/online-advisories-alerts
  4. https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/general-help/scamwatch/identify-a-scam/is-this-a-scam/