The Russians warned about a new scheme of deception in house chats

Attackers now operate in group chat rooms of residents, looking for their future victims. Pretending to be friendly neighbors, they send malicious files, masking them as e-books. This scheme is becoming increasingly popular.

Scammers closely monitor home chat rooms where people tend to trust each other. Then, posing as a neighbor, they begin correspondence with potential victims in private messages. During the conversation, the scammers offer to share a “great e-book”, but instead of the promised PDF file, they slip malicious software.

With the help of scripts or phishing sites disguised as ordinary book files, scammers gain access to confidential information. After that, the stolen victim accounts could be used to send spam, extort money on behalf of victims, or even sell that data to third parties.

Prosecutors strongly recommend that books can always be found in the public domain in libraries, on proven resources and official websites of publishers.