Below the supposed message about the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) competition there is a link: “colonelclub.cn/OEBB/…” Even if the term “OEBB” appears here, it does not come from the company itself. The federal railways in Austria use it still the domain www.oebb.at. The alarm bells should already be ringing here, because this is a...

Fake competition in the name of ÖBB

If you click on the link in the WhatsApp message curiously or hastily, you will be taken to a page that appears as ÖBB. The logo and photo were stolen from the railway company, the color scheme is based on that of the ÖBB-CI. And those who ignore the tell-tale URL have the impression that they are actually on an ÖBB website.

Congratulations are already being given here and a chance to win 2,000 euros is being offered. You just have to go through the questionnaire. This consists of four ridiculously simple questions. Small spoiler at this point: It doesn't matter at all what you answer here. There is no right or wrong, the creators behind this site just want you to click further and further.

Screenshots of the fake competition in the name of ÖBB
Screenshots of the fake competition in the name of ÖBB

You then have to share the good news with 5 groups or 20 friends via WhatsApp or Messenger so that the fake competition spreads even further. – Until you finally get to registration.

Here too, many probably don't suspect anything bad. After all, if you want to win something, you have to register. How else would the competition organizer know where to send or transfer the 2,000 euros?

But be careful: we are also talking about an application here!
Aside from the fact that by registering for such dubious competitions you already get a lot of spam in the form of emails, calls and postal items or even expensive subscriptions, with some of these sites you also end up getting unwanted malware on your smartphone.

Conclusion: stay away!

Supposed competitions that arrive via WhatsApp always follow the same pattern: The message should be spread further in the first steps of the process so that the likelihood that the fraudsters behind the fake competition will get as much data as possible increases.

In the end, you don't get the promised profit, but instead you lose your personal data, receive endless spam, may have taken out an expensive subscription or even downloaded malware.

Therefore: Ignore and delete such messages, which come with a URL that smells noticeably fake anyway. And it's best to inform the sender that this is a fake competition that has nothing to do with the alleged sender.

You might also be interested in: WhatsApp: dangerous security hole


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Notes:
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