They flood WhatsApp with a Heineken beer draw: don’t click, it’s a virus

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they flood whatsapp with a heineken beer draw: don't click,
they flood whatsapp with a heineken beer draw: don't click,

Nowadays the chains in social networks or messaging applications are a whole nest of malware, instead of the hypothetical curses of yesteryear. In addition to circulating hoaxes, many are dedicated to share by WhatsApp supposed contests which really are malicious web addresses that you should avoid going to.

If you have received a Heineken beer raffle from one of your contacts, do not click, because it is A virus.

False giveaway circulating on WhatsApp

Lately it is possible that you have received a link from a contact that leads to a supposed raffle in which you can win one of 5,000 Heineken mini-fridges filled with beer. You may have been tempted to click on the link and participate, and it makes sense considering the possible prize.

fake whatsapp giveaway

If we take a look at the publication file, with the thumbnail generated by WhatsApp, we can still have more options to click, because it makes us see that the link will redirect us to heineken.com, which, in fact, is the official website of this brand. of beers.

However, if we see what the real direction of this hypothetical contest is, it is about tinyurl4.ru/u600209763which through WhatsApp will install a virus on your mobile phone.

This contains malicious code that hijacks the user’s browser to then forward invasive advertising and replicate via WhatsApp to other contacts. That’s why you may see that certain contacts are willingly forwarding it to you, but they’re not.

In addition, this code triggers malware pop-ups that pay to display advertisements, which is how the criminal creators of this virus make money.

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Results VirusTotal giveaway WhatsApp

If we take a look at the results of this URL in VirusTotal, we will see that it is already reported as malware by BitDefender, G-Data and Sophos security solutions, as malicious by CRDF, CyRadar, and Forcepoint ThreatSeeker and as phishing by Kaspersky . However, these 7 reports are a tiny amount compared to the rest of the antiviruses that, at the moment, consider the URL valid and clean.

The false refrigerator contest is back

This brand is new, but the mechanics of the contest have been around for some time now. A few months ago, especially in Latin America, the fake contest was hanging around WhatsApp, but on that occasion with the Corona beer as a claim.

🚨🚨 Crown Family! ⚠️⚠️ The official dynamics of the brand will be published only and exclusively on our networks. There are currently many contests circulating that can be a virus threat.⚠️⚠️ Don’t fall for them⚠️⚠️ pic.twitter.com/JAOmjqDnmF

– Corona MX (@Corona_MX) June 8, 2022

The brand itself had to make a publication on social networks denying that they were responsible for said contest. For the time being, in the case we are reporting today, Heineken does not seem to have warned of this false contest on its behalf.

A couple of years ago, it was the brand Coke the one that saw how its name was used again for a false contest that was originally born in 2017. Even the National Police ended up sharing a cybersecurity alert to report the falsity and danger of clicking on these links.

The hoax of the raffle for a fridge of #Coke… ☝🏻 #Don’tPiquesit is #fake 👎🏻 and they just want to get your data https://t.co/BCDQoD1UiL

— National Police (@police) July 1, 2020

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