CHENNAI: The most recent fraudulent WhatsApp message to going viral is about Amazon selling Samsung J7 phone for `499.
The exact message reads “Breaking News, Amazon Selling Samsung J7 mobile phone for just Rs 499 because of Golden Anniversary. Buy it now before sale ends. Cash on delivery also available. Visit just now http://amazon.mobile-flashsale.com/”.
The biggest give away in this message is that Amazon always sells products online — www.amazon.com, so the Web link at the end of the message is false. Secondly, Amazon was started in 1994 and came to India in 2013, and a Golden Anniversary is 50 years, which makes it highly unlikely that Amazon would want to celebrate a non existent anniversary.
The link showed that there was a count down time to make the purchase but the time remained the same and when the buy now button is clicked, the customer is told to share the message with at least eight WhatsApp contacts. Now, like any other WhatsApp or SMS forwards, the customer easily can find out that such “share to so-many” people messages are usually fraudulent ones.
Besides these, the language used in the message and the link mentioned, do not seem legit and is enough to prove that it is not a message from Amazon.
Experts say that such messages are usually started to try and access a misled customer’s personal details and also bank details and also encourage customers to download harmful apps that could corrupt the phone or computer. The apps can also gain access to information and details on the phone.
As on Tuesday, clicking on the link only takes the customer to a dead-end with a “site can’t be reached” message and when one proceeds to ask for more details, the customer is alerted that it is an “unsafe site”.