This entry is also available in:
In this type of cyber-attacks cybercriminals pose as a person known or close to us and try to convince us either by mail, phone, SMS, Whatsapp or social networks, that they are in a complicated economic situation or emergency and need us to make them an urgent and immediate money transfer. The excuses they make range from needing money to pay for a cab, to needing a loan to pay bills at the end of the month.
How can we detect this type of scams?
-
- It is common that in these cases, in order to reach the maximum possible number of victims, Artificial Intelligence programs are used again. So the person who contacts us is not real, it is an answering machine and we can detect it in the mechanized voice. In case of doubt, we recommend asking the person who contacts us a very personal question that only he or she should know how to answer. If it is a cybercriminal, he or she will answer incorrectly, hang up the phone or stop answering the messages.
- Even if the phone number belongs to the same contact, it is also important to be alert and verify who is really contacting you. In most cases cybercriminals do not try to hide the contact number or email from which they are writing to us, indicating that they are our co-worker, friend, child, relative, but that they have run out of battery in the cell phone and are therefore writing to us from someone else’s phone. Here the suspicion may be more evident. But there is also the possibility that they have obtained a duplicate SIM card of our acquaintance and are using the same mobile number. In either case, we recommend calling the number directly to check the voice of the person who picks up the call and verify that it really is our acquaintance.