She didn’t know, because she’d never come across a publication that in any way scams a new kind of uncle story, one that targets entrepreneurs who sell their products via Instagram or those who do so via Facebook Marketplace. wire transfer scam.
First, the criminal locates someone who has put an item up for sale on an online platform. He poses as a presumed interested party who communicates with the victim to consult the price of the product and after having agreed on the transaction, he asks the CBU and the DNI to make the relative transfer. This is when the buyer “makes a mistake” and transfers several times the amount “by mistake”. Thus, in a very emotional moment, he asks him to return the difference to the CBU of a third party or some non-banking channel, generally giving a particular reason. Since the seller prides himself on being honest – and is undoubtedly trustworthy – he returns the excess money deposited – through a bank employee who works in a hurry and doesn’t give him a break, requesting personal information such as username, password, pin , token key, etc., looking for the agility of the return- and continue with his life. He soon discovers that the account has been debited in the name of a credit institution and now he owes one or more credits that he never took. All this is possible because some online financial companies grant credits with minimum requirements: CBU, DNI and a telephone number. These structures offer scammers an invaluable tool to get other people’s money.
“They entered my home banking, withdrew half my salary and asked for two loans and immediately made two transfers, one of which to Banco Nación. I made the complaint in the third, and when the policeman heard what happened, he told me that they already knew about this procedure,” said María José, who filed a fraud complaint with the 2 Criminal Prosecutor’s Office on December 30. “These they took away from me two loans that make a total of 729,000, in 60 installments of 60,000, when every time I operated via ATM they gave me a pre-approved loan of 600,000, so evidently the bank is easily violated, given that how could they have allowed so much movement in a matter of minutes and above all having withdrawn an amount that exceeded the agreed amount. It doesn’t enter my head to think that I have to take care of something that I never asked for. I don’t owe anything to anyone, for years I’ve been going around with my salary taking care of the mango, giving priority to my daughter and watching over my old lady. It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair ”, complains María José, who also went to the Undersecretary of Consumer Defense, where she asked for advice; She reported the incident to the brand new Criminal Prosecution Specialized in Computer Crime and to Banco Macro, where she has her salary account; and she also joined a national support group for scam 2.0 victims.
“I went to the Belgrano bank between Zuviría and Miter, where a very kind girl assisted me. I told him how things had gone and as she did so she said to me, “Here’s how they do it.” The response to my request was that the withdrawal from my salary account is difficult to recover, but that the loan most likely should not be paid. Anyway I have to follow up on my “unawareness” to 0800 Macro. How I wish I had read this kind of experience. It would have saved me so much upset! Virtuality has spawned a whole movement in living people, who have found a new way to work in virtual crime. The whole time I was with the alleged bank agent it was because I was afraid that something might happen to an old lady – who she told me was on the pill – she concluded.
A breeding ground for crime
The data on the impact of virtuality agree with María José. In April 2020, 2.6 million users joined the system of transacting money through digital media, according to a study on the use of electronic money conducted by Red Link. And according to the latest report from the Central Bank, mobile phones are the platform of choice for financial services users when making money transfers. In addition, 6 out of 10 transfers are made via mobile phones. Last October, 54% of instant wire transfers (88 million transactions) had a virtual wallet as their origin or destination. In the same month, 162.8 million transfers were made, an increase of 7.1% compared to September and more than double compared to October 2021. Furthermore, payments made by Mobile Banking represent 60% of the number of transactions made , when in August it was 57% and at the end of 2021 it was slightly over 53%.
The Undersecretary of Consumer Defense, Dr. María Emilia Calmejane, told El Tribuno that they provide free legal advice which is essential from the moment the person realizes they have fallen for a scam of this type. “We do preventive work to warn users about the protection of their card data and in the case of being a victim, the first steps are to contact the bank or financial institution to report this fact, then file a formal criminal complaint with the Police and then request a hearing in defense of the consumer in order to manage the cancellation of credits or loans possibly contracted from third parties”, he explained. She added that in 2022, they received 46 data theft cases, of which 70% were resolved favorably for the consumer, with the rest still being resolved in court. “In this sense, the evidence that is generated in the instance is always important, since the statements that can be established in the minutes provide full evidence in court,” she warned. When asked why it is so easy for a virtual user to get a loan that in the presence of a branch becomes an inflexible process and with different requirements and if this is against the law, which means that for any type of loan the applicant must always go and sign personally, sign a holographic signature or in any case a digital signature, declared that on 1 July 2021, through Communication 7319, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) ordered financial institutions to strengthen personal data security standards for credit pre-approval through electronic channels.
“The rule that is invoked in these cases is that of art. 42 of the Constitution to protect security and economic interests and art. 5 security in the strict sense, art. 6 warning and art. 40 responsibility for the risk of the Consumer Protection Law 24240 because it is the body that imposes systems such as home banking on users and therefore is also responsible for the risks”, he said. And while recommending users never to give their card data to anyone, either by telephone or by e-mail, to safeguard home banking data, so as not to lose sight of the operation when making a payment by card or to accept promotions, sweepstakes or deposits of money in ATMs with an alleged type of advantage, has not removed responsibility from banking entities. “The bank will always have the task of verifying that it is the holder who hires because it is responsible for the platform through which all movements and savings management are made, and not everyone respects this”, he concluded.
