On Thursday, cyber-security researchers in India announced the discovery of a malicious free gift campaign posing as a Tata Motors offer and gathering user data.
On Thursday, cyber-security researchers in India announced the discovery of a malicious free gift campaign posing as a Tata Motors offer that is gathering customers’ data, and the campaign has been linked to Chinese hackers.
The New Delhi-based CyberPeace Foundation’s research arm got certain links over WhatsApp relating to a free gift offer from Tata Motors, which collected browser and other information.
“The campaign is ostensibly a Tata Motors offer, but it is hosted on a third-party domain rather than Tata Motors’ official website, which makes it more suspect,” the research team stated in a statement.
If a user opens the link from a smartphone with the WhatsApp programme installed, the site’s sharing features will launch the WhatsApp application on the device.
“At the bottom of this page, there is also an area that appears to be a Facebook comment section where many individuals have commented on how useful the deal is,” the study found.
Users have three chances to win the prize after clicking the OK button.
The user has won “TATA SAFARI” after completing all of the attempts.
“To entice the layperson, the incentives are kept really appealing,” the team explained.
“Tata Motors Cars, Celebrates Sales Exceeding 30 Million,” reads the bogus website’s title
A congrats message appears on the landing page, along with an attractive photo of a Tata Safari automobile, inviting users to do a brief survey in exchange for a free TATA Safari vehicle.
To finish the progress bar, the user must then click the WhatsApp button. The user gets redirected to multiple ads webpages after clicking on the green ‘Complete registration’ button, which differs each time the user clicks on the button.
Cybercriminals, according to the experts, exploited Cloudflare technology to hide the genuine IP addresses of the front-end domain names utilised in the attack.
“However, over the course of our analysis, we discovered a domain name that was requested in the background and has been connected to China,” the researchers said.
The CyberPeace Foundation, a think tank and grassroot NGO of cyber security and policy specialists, and Autobot Infosec Private Limited investigated the situation and discovered that the websites in question are internet scams.
“The campaign purports to be an offer from Tata Motors, but it is hosted on a third-party domain rather than Tata Motors’ official website, which makes it more suspect,” the Foundation said.
People should avoid opening such communications delivered via social media sites, according to the Foundation.
