Residents of northern Kazakhstan targeted by scammers on WhatsApp and Telegram

Tengrinews.kz — Residents of northern Kazakhstan are being targeted by scammers who persistently ask them to vote for a child in an alleged contest, according to KTK.
Popular messenger accounts of unsuspecting users are being hacked en masse, after which scammers use the compromised accounts to ask the victims’ relatives and acquaintances for money.
Most often, messages appear on WhatsApp and Telegram saying, “Vote for Sasha Savenko,” although the first and last name can be different. The messages bombard users from numbers already saved in their contacts.
The message also says that a child is taking part in a contest and asks the recipient to vote by following a link. As soon as the person clicks it, the scam is triggered. The messenger account is hacked, leaving its real owner unable to control their messages. Scammers then contact relatives and acquaintances in the victim’s name, urgently asking to borrow money.
Police say scammers typically ask for between 10,000 and 80,000 tenge and do not engage in lengthy conversations. Fourteen such cases have been officially registered in just a few days. Police say the only way to protect yourself from such cyberattacks is to ignore these messages. If your messenger account has already been hacked, it should be reinstalled and its security settings strengthened.

“Go into your account and find the ‘two-step verification’ feature. Open it, turn it on, and you will be asked to enter a six-digit PIN. Once you set the PIN, another person will no longer be able to gain access to your account,” explained Muratbek Ayaganov, head of the Cybercrime Counteraction Department of the North Kazakhstan Regional Police Department.