"For the best grandfather". Scammers in Uzbekistan hack Telegram accounts through fake contests. Video

"For the best grandfather." In Uzbekistan, scammers are hacking Telegram accounts through fake contests. Video

Users in Uzbekistan have started receiving links to alleged online voting for the "best grandfather," "best grandmother," "best dad," or "best mom." If you follow such a link and enter a code from Telegram, you can lose access to your account, after which scammers begin to extort money from your contacts.

The scheme looks harmless: a person receives a message asking to support a contest participant and vote for them. The link leads to a website that may outwardly resemble the page of a real contest.

After clicking the link, the scammers prompt the user to log in via Telegram. To do this, the user may be asked to enter a code sent to their messenger.

It is this code that must not be shared with anyone. Having obtained it, the perpetrators can gain access to the account and begin acting on behalf of the owner.

This is followed by sending messages to the victim's contacts. Scammers may pose as the account owner and ask acquaintances or relatives to urgently transfer money.

The Cybersecurity Center warns: such "votings" and "contests" are often used as bait to gain access to users' accounts. The main rule in such a situation is not to enter Telegram codes on third-party resources and not to pass them to other people, even if the link came from an acquaintance and it concerns a seemingly harmless contest.

Earlier in Tashkent, cybersecurity department officers detained a young man suspected of stealing more than a billion soums from the account of a capital-based company.