The Phishing Page That Erased 600,000 Volunteers' Names

A Venezuelan volunteer site lost thousands of registrants after a phishing redirect and ISP block-who benefited from that breach?

The Phishing Page That Erased 600,000 Volunteers' Names

In this episode, we follow how a volunteer coordination effort for cross-border aid in Venezuela unfolded and the digital disruption that preceded a major aid convoy. What happened when six hundred thousand volunteers vanished from the official roster, and what did that mean for the operation at the Tienditas bridge?

Person: Juan Guaidó Location: Tienditas bridge, border between Colombia (Cúcuta) and Venezuela (Ureña) Date: February 2019; key dates February 12-16 and February 23, 2019 Event: Volunteer registration site phishing redirect and CANTV block Number: 600,000 volunteers registered

- A website, voluntariosxvenezuela.com, launched to register Venezuelans willing to receive and distribute aid and gathered roughly six hundred thousand sign-ups within hours. - Users accessing the site through CANTV, Venezuela’s state-controlled internet provider, were redirected on February 12-13 to a convincing fake version intended to harvest identities. - By February 16, CANTV had blocked the volunteer registration site entirely, removing access to the official list. - One week after the site was blocked, on February 23, aid trucks were sent to the sealed Tienditas bridge in a high-stakes political and humanitarian confrontation. - The registration surge and subsequent loss of the six hundred thousand names shifted the coordination landscape for volunteers in the days leading up to the convoy.

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