- BitDefender has identified a malicious SMS campaign
- The texts promise up to 90% energy bills savings
- Elon Musk’s equality is used to try to fool victims
A malicious SMS campaign has been discovered by Bitdefender who benefits from Americans who want to save money on their energy bills.
The scams sent an offer to an ‘innovative’ energy -saving device via an SMS, which usually includes the victim’s real name, and encouraged them to follow a link to “start hiding” hundreds at their electrical bill. The scammers probably had access to the victim’s names through previous data violations. Here is an example of SMS;
“Gary, your neighbors pay 79% less for power. Why are you not? Stop too much pay- click here to start saving .com/eln ”
Esaver Watt
In addition to phishing and malware attacks, it turned out that the link led some recipients to a false news article with a photo and a testimony from Musk that promised up to 90% savings on monthly electricity bills.
“The big electricity companies are scamming you. Yes, that’s right. Believe it or not, they have used a secret to cheating you every time you run your lights, dishwasher, blender, vacuum and everything else that draws power, ”says the fake Elon Musk.
“This is why your power bill is so expensive every month and continues to rise with some US residents who pay as much as $ 500 a month in electrical bills. Each American can cut their electricity bill by 90% using this revolutionary technology. You are welcome. “
The article contains a photo of the ‘device’ and links to product pages where plugin is sold for $ 40. Bitdefender has seen similar devices sold in Chinese marketplaces for only a few dollars – but to be clear energy prices can not be reduced by joining a marketing market and these devices cost victims money and their personal information.
These are classic social engineering attacks designed to panic or lure victims into action – which usually clicks on a malicious link that will steal their data. The best way to stay safe against attacks like these is to stay vigilant and never click on unsolicited links – remember, if it seems too good to be true, it’s probably!
