Channel 13 US Correspondent Thwarts Phishing Attack on Signal

Channel 13 US correspondent Suleiman Maswadeh narrowly avoided a sophisticated phishing attack on Signal, using quick thinking and a trap to expose the imposter.

The Setup and Red Flags

Maswadeh received a message on Signal from someone claiming to be Jake Traylor, a journalist at the US network MS Now (formerly MSNBC). The sender invited him for an interview focusing on his perspective as an Arab-Israeli journalist covering the country since October 7. Although Maswadeh verified that such a journalist exists, immediate red flags were raised.

The initial contact occurred on Signal rather than through a corporate email. Furthermore, the English used by the scammer was plagued with grammatical errors, such as "We wanna see insight of an Arab journalist to this years" and "Iam on the room," raising immediate doubts about a native English speaker.

We wanna see insight of an Arab journalist to this years

The Trap and Phishing Link

When Maswadeh, who was at the White House at the time, suggested meeting in person, the imposter quickly evaded the request, insisting on an online meeting. To confirm his suspicions, Maswadeh checked the real journalist's public profiles and discovered he had been covering a Donald Trump rally in Texas the previous day.

Maswadeh laid a trap by asking, "How was Texas yesterday?" The scammer, unaware of the trap, replied, "I have not been to texas Mr Suleiman," completely exposing the fraud.

On the day of the planned interview, the hacker sent a malicious link disguised via a Google URL Redirect leading to "online-roorn.life," which featured a deliberate typo in the word room. Signal automatically flagged the link as suspicious. After exposing the scam, Maswadeh ended the exchange by sending a photo of rappers Eminem and 50 Cent, blocking the account, and reporting it as spam.