Moscow police warn of account theft through fake contest requests

Fraudsters are using compromised accounts to send links to fake contests, Moscow police spokesperson Vladimir Vasenin told TASS. Recipients are asked to vote for the sender’s relative, friend or child.

The messages go to contacts of the compromised social media or messaging account. A familiar name helps attackers present the request as an ordinary personal message.

Vasenin warned that following such a link can lead to loss of access to the recipient’s account. The report does not explain the technical mechanism, however, and does not establish that simply opening any link automatically compromises an account.

Before voting, police advise calling the person whose name appears on the message and asking whether they sent it. Vasenin said the answer in 99% of such cases is that the account was hacked. That is his estimate, published without a description of its sample or methodology.

Two-factor authentication and checking suspicious websites’ domain names are recommended precautions. The report says the scheme was particularly common in 2022–2023 and remains in use.