Warning to thousands of Eurovision fans over devastating new WhatsApp con

LUCKY Eurovision fans who managed to bag tickets to the live Liverpool show have been warned of a nasty new scam doing the rounds.

Fraudsters have already jumped on all the excitement as their latest scheme to trick people out of money.

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Fans have reported receiving messages on WhatsApp[/caption]

Some ticket holders have reported receiving WhatsApp messages that claim to be from the hotel they’ve booked via Booking.com.

Crooks pose as hotel staff asking questions about their reservation.

They threaten to cancel your booking in order to make targets hastily co-operate.

This is a classic tactic used by cyber thieves, getting people to act irrationally in the heat of the moment.

“Just had my blood pressure raised up to high heavens, ALMOST fell for a scam from someone pretending to be my Liverpool accommodation,” one target revealed on Twitter.

“Wanted me to update details or they’d cancel. Called the hotel to check and they assured me my booking is fine. Be warned, everyone.”

It’s quite common for con artists to jump on big events.

But it’s not clear how they’ve figured out who is attending Eurovision or not.

A spokesperson for Booking.com told the Evening Standard: “Unfortunately some of our accommodation partners were recently targeted by phishing emails, which in some cases led to their accounts with us being affected.

“While this was not a security breach of Booking.com’s system or platform, these accounts were quickly locked to help reduce any further risk and we have been actively supporting our partners, as well as any potentially impacted customers.”

Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET warned: “When contacted outside of official platforms, scammers can take advantage of it not being policed.

“Fraudsters often take communication outside of the usual channels to circumnavigate any warnings that may be in place to spot potential fraudulent activity.

“As WhatsApp is not controlled by Booking.com or even Meta, criminals are able to cleverly manipulate people in what could look like an official form of communication.

“It is therefore advisable to keep all communication to known and trusted channels and never to part with any money outside of the official platforms.”

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