Scammers are using Teacher's Day to scam parents and students through fake chats and links

Attackers can create fake class chats and write to parents under the guise of PTA chairmen, using fundraisers for gifts for Teacher's Day to deceive.

Fraudsters may hack into the accounts of members of parent chats or create fake profiles to collect money for gifts or to lure people into fake chats.

Teachers can also become victims of scammers who send them malicious files under the guise of congratulations.

MOSCOW, October 4 - RIA Novosti. Before Teacher's Day, attackers can create fake class chats and write to parents under the guise of chairmen of the parent committee, RuStore Information Security Director Dmitry Morev told RIA Novosti.

“On the eve of Teacher’s Day, scammers can use fundraising for gifts, voting in competitions and holiday greetings to deceive schoolchildren and their parents,” he said.

The expert noted that one of the schemes is related to collecting money for a gift. Fraudsters hack into the account of one of the participants in the parent conversation or create a profile with the same name and photo as the committee chair.

So, on his behalf, scammers write to a general group or in private messages and ask to transfer money to a new card or pay for a gift using a link. Sometimes parents are invited to a fake class chat, where the meeting is conducted by strangers.

According to Morev, attackers approach students differently - through a request to vote for their favorite teacher in a competition. The link often comes from a classmate whose account has already been hacked. On the voting page they ask you to log in using your phone number and enter the code from the SMS. After this, the scammers gain access to the child’s account, send the same messages to his friends, or ask them to borrow money.

“Children should be warned that passwords and codes are not needed for real voting, and it is better not to open suspicious links, even if they were sent by a friend. If a child does enter a code or click on a strange link, he should immediately tell his parents about it, and not try to correct the situation himself,” he commented.

A two-step verification will help protect your account from hacking, the expert warned. If hacking does occur, you need to end active sessions on other devices, change the password and warn your friends that the messages were sent by an attacker.