Milan, 11 February (LaPresse) – ‘Could you vote for my niece?’: it's called Ghost Pairing and it's an online scam that allows cybercriminals to take control of victims' WhatsApp Web accounts, causing serious consequences for their privacy and even their wallets. The message you receive – ‘Hi! If it's not a problem, could you vote for my niece? There's not much time left’ – is particularly insidious because it comes from one of your contacts. The Carabinieri Cyber Investigation Unit of the Provincial Command of Naples is closely monitoring the phenomenon and has received many reports. The scam, explain the military, often begins with the receipt of a message from a real contact, such as a friend, relative or acquaintance, inviting you to vote for a child or young dancer in a supposed dance competition or cultural event. The message contains a link to a graphically polished and seemingly legitimate web page, which references the names of prestigious institutions and uses reassuring images. By clicking on the “Vote” button, the user is redirected to a pop-up window where they are asked to authenticate themselves via WhatsApp, under the pretext of avoiding invalid votes. By entering their phone number and then the verification code that appears on the screen, the victim unknowingly allows the fraudsters to open a WhatsApp Web session on a device controlled by the criminals. At that point, the account is compromised: cybercriminals can read messages, impersonate the victim and send requests for money to their contacts, often leveraging sudden emergencies, accidents or personal difficulties. In the same way, the trap message is then forwarded to other contacts, fuelling a chain of digital contagion.