In recent weeks, as we have already told you, we have detected an increase in text messages that impersonate parcel companies to install a malicious virus and thus obtain our personal and / or banking data. However, false alarms are also moving on WhatsApp and social networks that warn that if you dial a number they will charge you for other people’s calls or they will steal your data, but be careful! don’t believe it, because in the latter case it is nothing more than hoaxes that have been going around for years and that again raise alarm bells every now and then.
An example of this is the message you have asked us for in recent weeks via our chatbot (+34 644 229 319) which guarantees that they “call you by phone saying that they are from the technical service of Telecom, or Telefónica “, They ask you if you have tone dialing” and they ask you to dial “90 #” on your phone, turn it into a receiver and bill you for the calls. It is a hoax that has been circulating for years and that at Maldita.es we have already denied in 2018.
The Consumers and Users Organization (OCU) assures that it is a hoax and that they saw it dated for the first time in 1998, so, according to them, it has been circulating for more than 20 years . Telefónica also denied it in 2002. In addition, the National Police repeatedly published it saying it was fake.
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They will not charge you 1500 € or 1355 € to return the call to the phone 636634795 or 693955444
Neither 693955444 nor 636634795. They will not charge you neither € 1,500 nor € 1,355. The hoax that states:
“If they call you from tlf: 693955444. Don’t call to see who called you. It’s a crazy phone. The call will be billed at € 1,355. This is information from consumer associations. Pass it on, it’s a very sophisticated scam. Be careful, they sent it to me from the OCU legal department. Forwarding it to all your contacts is urgent. A friend searched the internet for it in case it was a hoax, but even Telefónica posted it on their website. Be careful with this mobile which has more fabric than it looks ”.
However, it is a hoax that has also been around for several years. They assure that this is an alert issued by the legal council of the Consumers and Users Organization (OCU), but this already published in 2016 on its website that the channel was spoofing them and that they did not ‘had nothing to do with the alleged alert. As you can see, they warn that this technique has been used in the past to scam people, but the numbers don’t work and “it is not possible to quantify the amount that could be lost”. Likewise, the national police also repeatedly warned that this channel was a hoax.
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If you have a missed call from these numbers with international prefixes and you return it, they won’t keep your contacts and bank details
There is also content that claims to be Civil Guard notice. This channel has been evolving since at least 2018 and ensures that if you call back, they will keep your contacts and bank details. What’s more, it also says that if you press the keys that tell you, they can access your SIM card and make calls at your expense. The text says that if you have a missed call from some of those phone numbers with international prefixes (+375, +371, +255, etc.) and you forward it, “they can copy their contact list to 3 seconds ”and also“ your bank or credit card information. It’s a hoax.
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The National Institute of Cybersecurity (INCIBE) denies that it can store your data simply by making a call. In addition, the Civil Guard assures that this is not a warning from him, as we explained in Maldita.es.
Although, according to INCIBE, they will not keep your data, and the Civil Guard says this is not their warning, for years the National Police and the Civil Guard have warned of “the scam of the ‘missed call. This technique is for phone numbers with international prefixes to make you missed calls so that when you see them you can call them back. But beware: at this point, they charge you a special rate.
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So, as they say, it’s a hoax that they’ll keep your contacts and bank details when returning a missed call. However, it is best not to call a phone number with an international prefix if you do not know who it is from.
If you receive one of these alerts via WhatsApp or if you see it circulating on social networks and you doubt the veracity of what it says, you can send it to our WhatsApp chatbot (+34644229319) so that we can verify that.
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