These are the recommendations to avoid scams by email, calls or SMS this summer

In the last two decades, personal communication has changed enormously. The popularization of messaging apps, the use of SMS in some countries (not in Europe, which have always been expensive and that’s why WhatsApp has succeeded as it has) and the normalization of unlimited mobile Internet connection have made Most of the conversations you have with your friends, family or colleagues are done through computer tools.. This also means that scam attempts have evolved and adapted.

We have already standardized this, Every day, fraud attempts come from various sources, because cybercrime is increasing worldwide. This is normal. It can be done in a delocalized way, it is much more complex to track and it is not even necessary to be in the same country to commit a crime.

For that We must be very careful when we receive a message or call that we did not expect.. Scam attempts are very varied, but sometimes certain patterns can be detected that can make us escape an attempt to steal our data or money.

Phone calls

Robinson List. The first thing we should do to minimize the risk of being a victim of a phone scam is to register on the Robinson List. This list tells companies that it is illegal to contact us for commercial purposes. Obviously, a scammer will not voluntarily comply with the regulations, but we will know that if someone calls us to sell us something, it could be a scam, because legitimate companies should not do this.

double call. However, if we receive a call, we need to know if it is “our gas”, electricity or telephone distributor. We often try to get a user to change companies by first calling them to tell them that they are going to increase their rates, and then calling a competing company to make them an interesting offer. If an offer seems interesting to us, the best thing to do is to hang up and call the company to confirm that the offer is such and, if we wish, to rent it.

No sensitive data. During an unsolicited call, you should never give out personal or banking information. You are also not required to provide details such as the CUPS, which is the electrical installation supply number. Whenever this type of data needs to be provided, it is best if it is in the context of a call that we have initiated.

Email

Trash mail. Email scams have improved a lot recently. No more scammers trying to trick us into thinking we are the heirs of a Nigerian prince. It is very important to set up your spam or junk folder correctly. This is the case in major services, such as Outlook or Gmail, but it should also be done in corporate email services that use their own servers.

Spelling. Any business proposal, any email from an entity that seems official could be a scam. One of the quickest ways to tell is by spelling mistakes. Often the opening exclamation and question marks are not used, other times the wording is strange because a machine translator was used, etc.

The link. You should never click on a link in an email that might be suspicious. Often, these links lead to a page that pretends to be from our bank or email provider. Every time we want to interact with these websites, we have to manually type them into the browser.

Domains and URLs. You should also look at what domain a message comes from. It is practically impossible to receive a fraudulent email from a real address of a bank or other company. As a rule, they use much longer addresses that include the name of the company. If in doubt, it is best to search the Internet for the contact form and call or write to the company. The same thing happens with links in emails. They lead to very strange web addresses (URLs) that show that they do not come from the official entities they claim to be.

SMS

In the case of SMS, the same elements must be taken into account as in the case of emails. In other words, you should never open a link who comes into one of them, we must take into account the spelling and check if the number from which we receive communication is the normal communication for the entity when it writes to us. But the latter is easy to simulate, so we must be very vigilant.

Spanish numbers. Another aspect to consider is the origin of the SMS received. If it starts with a number other than +34, which is the prefix of Europe, there is a greater chance that it is a scam. The same happens if it has a number of digits greater or less than the Spanish numbers.

Planning. It is also normal to receive messages from parcel companies, or from the Post Office, informing us that we have a package in customs and that we must pay an amount to recover it. To begin with, we must ask ourselves if we have really bought something, because this is often not the case. And if so, it is better to contact the seller before paying. Because the problem is not only with the money given, but also with the bank details such as the credit card or the name of the owner.