Quebecers have received a phishing text message that suggests that the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) wants to reward them for having “taken” all their “doses against COVID-19”.
Many people have been sharing screenshots of this fraudulent text message since Wednesday evening on social networks.
The text message contains a clickable hyperlink and promises a $100 reward.
On Radio-Canada on Thursday morning, the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, Éric Caire called for vigilance.
“It’s always worrying this kind of attempt, unfortunately I would tell you that it is becoming commonplace. “, did he declare.
The elected official raises that certain clues can put the chip in the ear that it is a phishing attempt, in particular the fact that it comes from a telephone number with a code of British Columbia and that the address to which it refers does not correspond to the Internet domain of the Government of Quebec.
The minister did not click on the link, but explains that generally the URL will relay to a server which will ask for personal information. “The objective behind this is potentially identity theft, argued Mr. Caire, or banking information”.
He adds that if the government had wanted to reward Quebecers with such a strategy, Health Minister Christian Dubé would have announced it more officially.
The politician also invites the population to report these fraudulent messages by texting to the number 7726.
According to Minister Caire, it is almost impossible to trace the author of this kind of text message.
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