Kaspersky warns: New scam in the name of the game Free Fire!

[bitheerani93]

Scams developed by criminals who are taking advantage of social isolation due to Covid-19 continue to circulate and are very active in Brazil – we identified a 124% increase in phishing attacks on mobile platforms between February and March. Kaspersky experts have now identified a new scam using one of today's most popular online games to display fake advertisements and thus spread scareware.

The body of the message states that, during the period of social isolation, the company that developed the game is giving away a thousand greece mobile database (the coins or money used to buy items in the game) and free passes that offer items for the player to use in the game. Logically, the benefits are not real and only serve to make the person click on the phishing link.

Screenshot of the scam spread via WhatsApp

Screenshot of the scam spread via WhatsApp

If the victim clicks on the link, they will be directed to a fraudulent page that asks the player to answer three questions about the game. Each time a new window is answered, it opens – this is where the scam takes place.



Final screen after 3 questions about the game

In tests conducted by Kaspersky security experts , pages were found that displayed advertisements, requests to participate in online surveys (traffic generation) and scareware – social engineering that aims to generate a perception of fear in order to make the victim download a solution to the problem presented, such as a supposed infection on the device or the need to download a VPN to continue accessing the link. It is interesting to note that the scam adapts depending on the language the user has on their cell phone – we identified scareware in Portuguese, English and Spanish.


Finally, the “program” asks the victim to share the “promotion” with ten contacts via WhatsApp. Again, the message can be in Portuguese, English or Spanish.

In tests conducted by Kaspersky , it was not possible to complete the process by loading the supposed benefit into the game account. The scam keeps showing a message saying that the message still needs to be shared with five contacts. Since WhatsApp no ​​longer allows sending messages to more than five contacts at a time, it is possible that this is the end of the scam. The only good thing for players is that at no point are they asked for the game's access credentials.

“ Free Fire recently reached a record 60 million active players, a number greater than the population of many Latin American countries – only Brazil and Mexico have more people. And it is this potential for victims that motivates cybercriminals to create scams using a popular brand, so much so that it has versions in different languages. And the best way to avoid scams like this is to be suspicious, searching only the official social networks to confirm the existence of the promotion”, says Fabio Assolini, senior security analyst at Kaspersky.