It is normal for anyone to be seduced by the idea of working for Google or for Youtube. They are two technology giants that surely offer competitive salaries in the labor market. Cybercriminals take advantage of this situation to attack victims through WhatsApp; They gain people's trust and when you least expect it they scam you.
The first thing you should know is that Google and Youtube they don't contact you for WhatsApp to offer you a job. And much less if you didn't apply for any of their vacancies in Latin America or the world. We know that these two platforms also have ways to monetize using their services. They are also not offered through third parties that use the messaging service of Goal.
So, if you see that you receive a message by WhatsApp from someone making job offers that leave monetary profits with minimal effort, you should already know that you are being a possible victim of a scam or phishing.
The cybersecurity firm ESET detects this new modus operandi, which has been operating in Latin America for a couple of months. “Victims are randomly contacted by WhatsApp from unknown numbers – even from distant countries – to review hotels, with the aim of increasing their online reputation. They contact a representative, who provides the details of the job to start earning money immediately,” explains the security company.
🔍 Important! Be careful with a fake Google Maps job offer on WhatsApp.
💼🚫 This scam is circulating in several Latin American countries, promising attractive part-time jobs in exchange for reviews.
Find out the details here: https://t.co/R2wHWyZGLw
— ESET Latin America (@ESETLA) April 11, 2024
“Once possible victims complete the first tasks, they are invited to join a Telegram group, where a person will indicate the details of the payments, which will continue until at one point they will request the deposit of a commission to continue operating. ”, they continue in their story.
“Although at first the criminals will allow the accumulated profits to be withdrawn to create trust, the fraud is based on making people believe that as they complete the tasks they can climb the level and obtain higher commissions. But the deposits will also be larger, for the sole gain of the scammers,” they point out as one of the alerts that we must take into account.