Chhimi Dema

An online survey link offers you an opportunity to win an iPhone 12 Pro.  The deal, however, is too good to be true.

Under the guise of ‘DHL satisfaction survey,’ an online link has been circulating on the social media platform — WhatsApp.  IT experts say this is a phishing or scam link shared by scammers to lure people to share personal information.

When you click on the link, it inquires the gender, age group, type of mobile phone system (options of Android or Apple), and asks the person to rate the DHL service.  The person has to then select three gift boxes for the prize, after selection, the person wins an iPhone.

However, the rule is that he or she has to share the link on WhatsApp to five other groups or 20 individuals to win the iPhone.

There are risks while clicking on these links, according to NGN Technologies pvt ltd’s chief technology officer, Khemlal Chhetri.

He said that scammers send these links because they want to steal personal information or bank details. “If they steal bank details then they’ll try to transfer money from your bank.”

If people click on these links, Khemlal Chhetri said, scammers will either put malware to steal information or hack electronic devices.  He said that if the links were malware attacks, by just clicking the link, the malware would be pushed into the system.

Malware (malicious software) is intrusive software designed to damage computers, servers, clients, and computer networks.  Some common malware includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, and adware, among others.

Khemlal Chhetri said; “When malware is sent from a link, and if the device is connected to multiple devices through the internet or internal connection, then it will try to reach the main system that they usually aim for, and then it would block or hack the system.”

However, he said that just by opening and giving some basic information, it might not have a huge impact, but critical information like bank details or passwords should not be shared.

Bhutan Computer Incident Response Team (BtCIRT), the national computer incident response team under the information and communications ministry (MoIC), on their Facebook page, has also warned the public from clicking on such links.

Officials said that people should always check the URL and in this particular case, if the link was from DHL, it should have www.dhl.com.