Unfortunately, as some superheroes say, evil never sleeps and criminals have found a trap: our cell phones. And that’s it, phone scams and scams are still very common and it can become a headache to keep in mind all the possible ways we can be deceived.
There are election email scams, SMS scams, and even WhatsApp scams, but now we’ll focus on those call scams that seek to take a big chunk out of our bank account. Afterwards, We review the most common phone scams and some advice to avoid falling into it.
Missed call scam
At this point, a classic is the missed call scam. Here it doesn’t matter who gets the money (the scammer or a phone company), but the fact is that they can put a hole in your bank account if you answer those missed calls.
And it’s a scam that works very well because the normal thing is that, if we see a loss, we automatically return it to see who it is. It can be a colleague who has changed their mobile, the delivery person of something we ordered or whatever. However, you have to look at the prefix.
This is something that the National Police and the Civil Guard have warned via Twitter on more than one occasionand is that if we return a call to prefixes such as 355 from Albania, 225 from Ivory Coast, 233 from Ghana or 234 from Nigeria, among many others, a special rate is charged to us.
The double call or scam by vishing
The above is a fairly simple scam, but if we’re talking about vishing, we have something more conscientious that tries to trick you based on good. There are two victims here: us, whom they are trying to deceive, and the light, gas, electricity or telecommunications companies, since they are the ones who are supplanted.
The operation is quite simple because appeals to our feelings, especially bad grapes after a call in which a company with which we have contracted tells us that the price will increase.
Conceived They call you from your phone company saying they’re going to raise your electricity rates. You get angry, logically, but you’re told what it is and that, like lentils, you take it or leave it. You hang up, you are still angry and after a few minutes another company calls you saying that it is company X or a new operator approved by the OCU and offers to improve your conditions.
Obviously that’s wrong, they won’t improve your terms, but they may want you to give them data over the phone, and that’s where you fell for the trap. Why does it work? Because if we are angry with our company, we will instinctively be more open to change immediately after the conflict.
You can see a recorded case in this OCU video:
This call is weird because they tell you that you have to accept the offer within an hour or they will start applying the supposed fake new rates.
Confirmation of data or price reduction in your service
It’s old, but it continues to be done because there are people who continue to fall. It’s as easy as calling us from a streaming service or from the bank saying that our account has been blocked for some reason and that, to restore it, we must communicate certain data. Or it doesn’t have to be an account ban, they may just tell you it’s a routine check.
It can be passwords, PIN code, card number or any other data which helps criminals to access our account and, thus, have a free hand to access the payment method or, even, see if we have reused the password in another service.
They may also call you to offer you a discount on your rate (being the inverse of the previous case of double call). There, they can surprise us receptive and agree to give our data because… who doesn’t want to pay less?
You have won a prize (yes, that of a call at nine dollars per minute)
In this scam, texting and calling are combined. Generally, they text you saying you won a prize, a brand new iPhone 14 Pro (to put one of the newer ones) or a gift card, which is also quite common. If you wish, you must call a certain number.
That’s when we get caught ’cause numbers usually start with 806 and it is a high rate line. As you pointed out the civil guard on occasion, with a price of up to nine dollars per minute.
Microsoft techs who are great and want to inject you with malware
It’s curious and there are even recorded examples. We customize at Microsoft because it makes a lot of sense– The criminals know that it is very, very likely that you have a Windows PC and it is also possible that you have requested technical assistance.
One fine day they call you They tell you that you have a support request and pretend to refer you to a technical service. This department spells out a series of characters that, if entered into the browser, can install malware on your device.
Better than tell the case, you can listen to it through the national police:
How to protect yourself from phone scams
The best advice to avoid falling into the trap of a phone scam is to use common sense. If something doesn’t make you feel good, let it be. There is nothing wrong with hanging up, checking the data, contacting the alleged company or service calling us by other means or, directly, if the number is very rare, not picking it up and search for information on Google.
If you don’t see a very long prefix or if your Android automatic spam filter isn’t activating, the easiest thing is for us to catch it. And that’s it, It is not recommended not to take all calls that you do not know as it is impossible for us to have all the numbers on file and there are variants (such as the aforementioned couriers or legitimate companies) who may call us. Or someone who made a mistake, go ahead.
That being said, and the best we can do with common sense is never give personal information over the phone. Do not give out data such as identifiers, dates of birth, codes, passwords or e-mails.
And, if you suspect, at least report the number, block the contact and do not return calls. If you want, and the number doesn’t have a weird prefix, you can send a WhatsApp or Telegram message asking who it is. And, if he doesn’t answer and you were interested in contacting him, there’s always the option of waiting for him to call back.
Eventually, There are many phone and other scams out there, but these tips will help protect you against most of them.. And, be careful, we can detect scams at a minimum, but if they continue to be done it is because they work and there are people who fall into the trap, so it is advisable to discuss them with family and friends who, perhaps, are not very focused on the subject and could be victims.
In Xataka Android | If you are fed up with SPAM calls, these tricks will help you fight them on your Android mobile
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