Have you received an alleged SMS from MediaMarkt in recent days congratulating you on winning a contest in which you have not participated? A message through WhatsApp showing how to win a free iPhone 11 Pro Max? Most likely it is a scam . This has been confirmed by the chain itself recently on its official Twitter account. Apparently, the reception of this type of messages to random users is increasing in recent weeks, and the official MediaMarkt channels have already denied the veracity of these viral channels.
New cases of phishing with fake SMS from MediaMarkt
Since the last weeks several users have been reporting on the different social networks the receipt of an SMS whose authorship corresponds to MediaMartk and whose message generally describes the receipt of a prize or a discount coupon , for which we will have to access a link that is attached along with the original SMS.
Many others claim to have received message chains through WhatsApp with the same body as the SMS described above and a link that takes us to a page very similar to that of MediaMartkt. In both cases we are faced with a scam through what is known as phishing .
⚠ FAKE SMS SENDING ⚠
Our customers have informed us of different fraudulent SMS with order / gift shipments that have been sent on behalf of MediaMarkt. #StopPhising pic.twitter.com/VjKdcVVLF4
- MediaMarkt Spain (@MediaMarkt_es) October 16, 2019
Broadly speaking, phishing is a technique used to obtain personal and banking data by supplanting the identity of a certain body, company or organization. In general, these types of pages try to imitate the aesthetics of the original page in order to go unnoticed in the eyes of the user. Once we have entered our personal and bank details (credit or debit card, bank account ...) in the attached form, the information will be sent automatically to cybercriminals .
So you can avoid falling into phishing
The first step in detecting these types of online scams is based on resorting to logic. Have we won the prize of a contest in which you have not participated? Or received a discount coupon from a store where we have not attended for months? The number of methods cybercriminals resort to can be as diverse as it is diverse. But remember: nobody gives four pesetas hard .
Another method that we can use is based on blocking the SMS of the number that sends the fraudulent messages. Today, most of the personalization layers have an option that allows them to block the recipient of an SMS . We will only have to click on the three Options points within the message in question and select Block number.
If the message has been sent through a WhatsApp conversation, we can always warn the user that it is a fake message. The way to check it is as simple as accessing the link that is attached to the message and observing the authenticity of the domain of the web, that is, the web address of the page . If it does not correspond to the domain of the original website (Mediamarkt.es, Mercadona.es, Carrefour.es etc.) and has some variation (MediaMartk-es.es, Mercadonna.es, Carrrefour.es etc.), it is a fraudulent page, and we can confirm it if the page in question lacks the green security lock that is shown in most browsers.