– I was a little nervous, I sat in the car and was going home, I also pressed. It was just a reaction. I clicked it right away and then realized something was wrong because the link didn’t open.
This is how Nicole Burger of Sør-Varanger describes her experience on Thursday. In the middle of preparations for Christmas, I fell victim to an SMS scam.
Burger received a message that an attempt had been made to deliver a package. In the message, there was a request to communicate via a link.
After clicking on the link, the look of the text messaging app changed and a new app was installed. It was not possible to uninstall it. But it didn’t end there. It wasn’t until NRK called her that she learned that her number was now being used to send fraudulent text messages to others.
– It feels very uncomfortable because I’m helping to post it here, and I don’t like it. She says it’s disgusting.
This was the message sent from the phone to Nicole Berger.
Photo: screenshot
20,000 messages sent
The fraud victim from Sør-Varanger has a Telia subscription, but she is not the only one who has been exposed.
Since November 23, the company has had 600 customers who have been attacked by Flubot. Moreover Telenor is having trouble overcoming the attack.
Telia Norway’s director of information, Daniel Barhom, says 180 customers were affected on Thursday.
How the customer is affected depends on the phone system. If you have iOS, you will be sent to a fake website where your banking details and personal information can be stolen. Android customers download an app disguised as a DHL app.
– He explains that the app is hidden on the phone, and people who have downloaded the app will not see that the SMS is being sent from the phone.
Barhoum can still assure customers that they have not seen a connection between a phone with a virus sending text messages, and the contacts stored on the phone. For Telia, the messages appear to have been sent to random Norwegian numbers.
– Barhoum says some affected customers sent as many as 20,000 SMS messages.
He believes that scammers are taking advantage of the fact that many Norwegians order goods online in the run-up to Christmas, goods whose status you can check via SMS. Moreover Norway Post noticed a trend.
Burger describes herself as a very keen person, but has a theory as to why she clicked the link.
– I have sent and I am waiting for the parcel. So you might as well be a little more, so you don’t get too suspicious, because you know something is on the way. Maybe that’s what made me actually click on that link.
“Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst.”
