Tech

A Blablacar scam wants to plunder your bank account, beware of fake profiles!

A scam is currently raging on Blablacar. Through fake profiles, Russian hackers seek to deceive users and steal money from their bank account. We explain how to spot the traps.

blablacar scam

A wave of scams is currently spreading on BlaBlacar, the famous carpooling application. This Friday, February 18, 2022, journalist Valentin Hamon explains that he was the victim of a trap aimed at debiting his bank account.

After the cancellation of his train, the journalist started looking for a carpool on BlaBlacar. Soon he came across Tiphaine’s profilea young woman who offers an affordable ride. “I’m booking the trip, and I’m waiting for confirmation. 1h30 later, I receive a first email which tells me that Tiphaine has accepted the reservation, then a second which tells me on the contrary that she has canceled the trip, and that I will be reimbursed”testifies Valentin Hamon.

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This BlaBlacar scam wants to steal more than 300 euros from you

The journalist does not understand the reasons for the cancellation. He then decides to contact the driver behind the announcement by telephone. The man is relayed on an answering machine. Annoyed, he goes in search of another carpool. He then reserves a trip with Sophia for the modest sum of 13 euros. The young woman confirms but cancels shortly after the meeting.

On WhatsApp, he then receives a message from Sophia claiming that BlaBlacar has canceled the trip “due to a server error”. She then undertakes to contact the assistance of the platform and to lead her interlocutor to good port, as planned in the announcement. Assuring that Blablacar suffers from a technical problemshe claims that the journalist must rebook the trip by clicking on a link.

After clicking on the link, Valentin Hamon comes across a web page whose interface imitates that of BlaBlacar. “I fill in the requested information, and I proceed to payment. I am then redirected to a page where I am asked for my credit card code”, continues the journalist. To finalize the payment, the site asks to enter a code received by SMS.

Unfortunately, this code absolutely does not correspond to the amount requested for the trip. “My bank tells me that the code in question corresponds to a payment of 900.89 BYN (Russian rubles)”, explains the thread on Twitter. So he was about to pay more than 300 euros.

Aware of having almost been the victim of a band of Russian pirates, the journalist begins to search through the BlaBlacar advertisements. There he finds many fake profiles of young women that offer discounted rides. For the profile picture, the hackers used the famous site capable of generating fake faces. Designed by Nvidia, the site uses artificial intelligence and impressive algorithms to design a face from scratch.

This isn’t the first time BlaBlacar has been plagued by scams. At the end of 2021, a flurry of testimonials claimed that fake ads share phishing links. The modus operandi was similar back then. We therefore advise you to remain vigilant.

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