Phishing Attacks Targeted At Nokia Smartphone

Nokia is a failed brand in the west, including in their native Finland since the emergence of the 2007 smartphone named Apple iPhone. After a solid decade of being the number 1 mobile phone hardware manufacturer, today Nokia only exist as a 3rd tier of Android devices now manufactured by HMD Global, after they bought the license for the nokia brand. However, due to sheer familiarity for the Nokia brand which has build a name for itself for many decades, Nokia smartphones still have a reasonably sized market in Asia.

Nokia is popular enough in the east, to a point that phishing attacks through SMS and even phone calls are launched by cybercriminals against Nokia smartphone users. Samples of phishing tricks were posted by users in the official HMD Global blog, where Nokia-HMD staff named Laura admitted that Nokia users are targeted in this wide ranging call and SMS phishing.

Feedback from HMD-Nokia Global:

HMD_Laura

Staff member  / February 6 edited February 6

Hi everyone!

Please be aware that we have recently become aware that somebody is sending fake/spoof SMS, calls and emails referencing Nokia.com whereby unsuspecting consumers are being asked to submit money/registration fees against a lucky draw. PLEASE DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY OF THESE FAKE OFFERS OR GIVE OUT ANY OF YOUR INFORMATION IN THIS REGARD.

Please contact 18001028169 or support@hmdglobal.com for any further queries.

Best regards,

Laura

Sample phishing scams as reported by some users: (some of them include severe grammatical errors)

Welcome to Nokia.com online shopping pvt LTD.co.
Dear sir,
Nokia.com you are a product mangopeople onlione shopping results are out in the selected for name of mansoon-luckky drwo your name to open the luckky drw.you have two options.
1st ot Tata safari
2nd is Payment of Rs 1260000/-The charge of Registration service is RS-6500/-

AnilAG

✭✭  / 8:06AM  edited 8:11AM

I also got the call from +91 9931069671 on 05 Feb 2019 at 2:22

The Caller told me that he is calling from nokia and told me that I have purchased Nokia Mobile from shopclues and I will have the chance to win tata safari, etc. etc.

Since I have not purchased it from shopclues, I asked him his name, and he answered as Rakesh Kumar. Then again forcefully I asked him his email id but he hanged the call.

The issue is that, from where these people getting details that I own the nokia phone which I have bought just one week before ?

nmgo3

✭✭  / February 6  edited February 6

I too had received such SMS on 04th February, 2019, But, I had deleted it. However, I have the screenshot of the Call log from the cell no. (+91) 7250052165. That guy pretended to be an employee of Shopclues.com, he did not even mention his name and designation. I have marked his call as a Spam call.

It appears that somebody within your company or from the courier company is leaking customer data to such fraudsters.

I and my aunt had purchased Our Nokia Phones from your website. The guy who had called from the aforementioned number knew perfectly well that I had even won Nokia Bluetooth earphones as lucky draw.

HMD-Global needs to increase the awareness of these phishing attempts, in order to prevent their customers from falling for the scams. Somewhat a good barometer that is proven by this issue is Nokia’s fortunate marketshare still existing in Asian countries where phishing victims the cases. One good rule of the thumb to learn from this episode is raffle draws can only be won if the person voluntarily participated in the raffle draw. There is no legitimate raffle draw which can be entered into just by random.