Viral warning about “Seismic Waves CARD” virus spreads online – Fact Check
A viral online message spreading across social media – in particular WhatsApp – warns readers not to open photos of the Moroccan earthquake or a file called “Seismic Waves CARD” because it is a virus that will “hack your phone in 10 seconds”.
Viral “copy and paste” warnings claiming to describe the latest online threats are notoriously bad and frequently incoherent, and this latest incarnation is really no different. We’ve included a handful of variants of this warning below.
Important and urgent pictures of the Moroccan earthquake have been spotted circulating on WhatsApp. The file called seismic waves CARD do not open it or expose it, your phone Will penetrate in 10 seconds and can not be stopped in any way. Pass this along to your family and friends it’s very serious!!
They, not sure who they are, are going to upload some photos of the Moroccan earthquake on WhatsApp. The file is called Seismic Waves CARD, don’t open it or see it, it will hack your phone in 10 seconds and it cannot be stopped in any way. Pass the information on to your family and friends.
DO NOT OPEN IT. They also said it on TV
The warnings are also spreading prolifically written in Arabic.
As is often the case with these types of warnings, the message is practically incoherent, which is usually the result of the message being auto-translated several times.
Alas, the final result is a warning that doesn’t really make much sense. Should WhatsApp users be on the lookout for photos of the earthquake in Morocco being sent across the message app, or a file with the name Seismic Waves CARD”? The warning doesn’t really elaborate.
Also, how will WhatsApp users be sent these allegedly harmful photos or files? Will they be sent by a friend, or from an unknown number? Again, this isn’t explained.
But most importantly, the warning doesn’t really explain how this apparent scam actually works. Sending and receiving photos in the WhatsApp app is generally regarded as safe, since there are no prolific or effective methods of spreading viruses inside photos (yes, yes there is stenography-themed techniques but these are terribly ineffective and laborious methods not oft exploited by crooks.)
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It also isn’t easy to spread viruses in files across WhatsApp either. This is why most WhatsApp-themed scams usually rely on luring users to click on links to external websites on the Internet that will attempt to scam visitors. For example asking them to download files or enter their login credentials on spoof websites (phishing).
But there is no mention of any of this in the attached warning that is spreading online, only to watch out for a specifically named file that can “hack your device in 10 seconds” – a frequently employed claim that is often attached to these nonsensical warnings.
Finally, there are no legitimate warnings about a file called “Seismic Waves CARD”, and the name hasn’t been associated with any known threats by any Cybersecurity entities we’ve checked with. In fact any online search for the name just circles back to the online warning itself.
While crooks and scammers often do use current events to try and scam victims, incoherent and vague warnings like the examples above really serve little purpose and we don’t recommend spreading them. If you want to make your friends or family aware of any current threats, share a link to a reputable Cybersecurity article instead which will detail threats accurately.
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