It has been found that a pharming(fraudulent) website posing as Samsung had roamed freely for two years committing fraud against consumers around the world.
All Samsung foreign branches are devoting all their energy to prevent consumer damage, as there have been some cases of consumer misleading overseas.
Since the piracy of ‘Korea’s representative brand’ may even deal a severe blow to national prestige, measures are needed.
Samsung Electronics Malaysia Branch recently made a request on their website(samsung.com/my/home) for being aware of the fraudulent website ‘posing as Samsung.’(samsungiprize.com) According to the notice, the system operator of this website is sending decoy text messages to unspecified masses saying that they can receive a prize of 1.3 million dollars. In the message is also a serial number named ‘Samsung Key.’
The ‘Samsung I Prize’ website that ETNEWS accessed is organized elaborately enough to mistake it for an actual Samsung Electronics’ website. They have attached links ‘About Samsung,’ ‘Investor Relations’ along with images of Samsung Electronics products, and even the product categorization is organized in Samsung Electronics’ actual business groups such as mobile, signage, health care, LED, etc.
Once accessing, a pop-up saying ‘iPrize 2015’ comes on the initial screen. It reads, “Winners for the Samsung iPrize consumer cash awards have been announced. If you are a winner, connect to the following link and enter the Samsung Key given via SMS to receive the cash prize.” Once a user enters this key, malware is installed in the user’s computer as an abusive means for personal information leakage.
The website organization reminds us of Samsung’s website, because the like is set to connect to Samsung Electronics Ireland Branch(samsung.com/ie). They also exposed some errors, as some links led to web browser messages saying ‘The page cannot be found.’ The Samsung Electronics website, ‘samsung.com,’ exposes a custom made message saying ‘The page cannot be found’ to prove fraudulent websites fake, according to its system settings. ‘Galway, Ireland,’ the address on the domain’s registration information is neither a place relevant to Samsung.
Such a crime started in the UK, Ireland is spreading through the European Continent including Germany, France, etc. all the way to Southeast Asia. As ETNEWS started coverage, Samsung Electronics ascertained relevant facts and shut down the website on April 22nd. A Samsung Electronics official said, “Since there were problems including trademark piracy, etc., the relevant department took actions.”
The problem is that such a fraudulent website ‘posing as Samsung’ has been operating since two years ago, simply changing its address. According to the European industry, there has been a constant fraud using the same method, simply changing the website’s address. The site’s domain had been created in March, but had already proceeded the same fraud scheme in similar domains such as ‘Mobile Samsung,’ ‘Samsung Promo,’ etc. before.
Staff Reporter Seo, Hyeong-seok | hsseo@etnews.com