Surely you have ever received Calls from strange numbers Or even WhatsApp or SMS messages. They are usually long numbers with prefixes from other countries, but appear to be from here. For example, +972, which corresponds to Israel and can be confused with the commercial 902, or the prefix +93, which corresponds to Afghanistan, but can be confused with the 930 for the Barcelona area. Be careful, because they can be scams.
“The purpose of these numbers is simply to trust, and for you to hang on to them. From there, any kind of fraud begins.” Wishes [basada en informació obtinguda prèviament a internet]. What can they do to you? From impersonating your branch and offering you cryptocurrency to any scam. Then, there are special numbers, where if you call back, you will be charged. “They pay cash on delivery and take your money,” he explains. Bruno Perez Juncaa cybersecurity expert. He says it’s important to be vigilant, especially among the elderly, who are more vulnerable to this type of phone scam.
But are they really calling or texting us from Afghanistan? Not necessarily, Perez explains. Using identity fraud technology (in English, Counterfeiting) The phone number identifiers can be changed. In this way, we receive a text message that appears to be from our bank, but it is not. It is from another number that mimics the number of your bank. “So, the phone number is the least important thing, because it can come to you from anywhere. You can see a +44 number, and instead of being from England, it could be from here. They are an organized mafia, they also run the corridors, and maybe you get a number from Iran and it turns out that these people are in Bogotá. Communications are like that, we are in globalization and that is one of the risks there,” says Pérez Junca.
How can we protect ourselves from these scams?
The scale of this type of scam has increased so much that the Spanish government has taken measures to try to stop it. One of these measures has been to ban the use of mobile numbers for business calls, but for Pérez Junca this is “opening the doors to the countryside”. Also remember that international calls cannot be blocked.
“Communication systems and protocols are designed to be efficient, but they are not secure,” he says. Current phone system protocols are outdated and insecure. So how can we protect ourselves? “There is no trust, there is nothing else to do.” So when we see calls or messages from unknown numbers, we should not hang up or answer them. Do not answer the call under any circumstances.
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