Tinyurl5.ru Scam on Whatsapp & Other Social Media – Fake Amazon Returned Products Giveaway

As technology advances these days, so do various types of scams that circulate through the internet. Let’s talk about one such link today, which is popular on WhatsApp and Facebook. The name of this website, tinyurl5.ru, which is going viral.

Today, I found a link shared by some of my friends on WhatsApp, with the Amazon logo visible and giveaway written on it, with the title Amazon Products Giveaway and the subtitle 10000 Free products for you. When you click on this link, you will be prompted to answer a few simple questions on the screen.

When you have answered all of the questions, 6 gift boxes will appear on your screen, and you must select two of them. When you click on one of the boxes, it will be empty. In the second box, you have won an iPhone, but in order to do so, you must send this message to 5 WhatsApp groups and to 20 people. Following that, the registration must be completed by providing the delivery address. However, when this link tinyurl5.ru was checked, the message Warning Suspected Phishing Site appeared.

We have seen a lot of URL schemes like this, where it takes you to another link and shows ads or asks you to fill out a form to collect data. It is a URL shortner service. Which is being misused by cybercriminals in order to display advertisements and steal your personal information. These links will not only annoy you, but they may also cause issues with your phone and computer.

What to do if you receive a message like this:

• First of all, talk to the sender of this message or check the authenticity of the message.
• Delete the message from your phone.
• If you have sent this message to someone, then tell them about it too and then delete it too.
• Check your phone’s settings to see if any unwanted software has installed; if so, then delete them.
• Completely delete all history, cache, and cookies from your web browser’s settings.

When using WhatsApp or any other social media, keep in mind that you should never forward a message without first understanding it; instead, stay alert and cautious and never forward a message without checking it’s authencity.