Filipinos warned vs suspicious New Year greetings on messaging apps

MANILA, Philippines — A computer emergency response team warned Filipinos against opening suspicious greetings on messaging applications this holiday season.

In an advisory Monday, the Cyber Security Philippines-CERT said opening suspicious New Year greetings will direct users to malicious websites and prompt them to input their data.

“Careful with opening greeting notification via Messenger this New Year. Better yet—before opening one confirm first with your friend, family and relatives if they indeed sent one,” CSP-CERT said on a Facebook post.

The malicious websites listed by CSP-CERT are the following:

• http://wish-you.co
• http://wish4u.co
• https://my-msg.co
• http://look-me.co
• http://surprise4u.me
• http://hookupgist.com
• http://see-magic.co
• http://mera-style.com
• http://whatsapp-style.co
• http://my-love.co

CSP-CERT advised victims of suspicious greetings to change the passwords for their banking and social media accounts, reset their browsers, update their anti-malware and scan.

CSP-CERT—the first registered computer emergency response team in the Philippines— “study and solve problems with widespread cybersecurity implications, conduct research  and development and provide advisories on security compromises under the Philippines Autonomous System Number.”