According to TechCrunch, cybercriminals have put a range of Facebook advertisements disguised as a Clubhouse app for PC users to infect innocent customers with scam material. Several Facebook ads have been showing up on Facebook groups pretending as Clubhouse, the audio chat app only accessible on iPhones, were reported to TechCrunch on Wednesday. When these adds will be opened, a person will be taken to the fake Clubhouse website where screenshot will appear and a link to install the malicious app will be given.
When the malicious app is activated it attempts to connect to a command and control server in order to receive information about what's next. The malware attempted to attack the exposed computer with ransomware, according to a sandbox study. Within a single night, all the fake Clubhouse websites based in Russia were got removed. As a result, the malware ceased to function.
It's not unusual for cybercriminals to design malware campaigns to capitalize on the popularity of widely used apps. Being an invite only app, Clubhouse has recently surpassed 8 million worldwide downloads. Due to the high demand, a race began to reverse-engineer the software in order to create illegal versions that could bypass Clubhouse's gated walls as well as government censorship where the app was banned.
The Facebook pages that were displaying fake clubhouse ads had just a few hundred likes when published but still they were involved. When contacted, Facebook declined to say how many people had clicked on the advertising that led to the bogus Clubhouse websites.
A minimum of 9 advertisements were posted on Facebook group since Tuesday. Clubhouse "is now available for PC," according to some of the advertisements, and another displayed a picture of co-founders Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth. A request for comment from Clubhouse was not answered.
The ads were taken down from Facebook's Ad Library but the copies are there. It is still not clear how Facebook approves the ads in the first place. Facebook privacy policy passed the ads and allowed to post them on Facebook groups.
Read next: Creators on Clubhouse can now monetize their content after the introduction of new Payment method
