The National Police has warned of a third wave, in recent days, of a type of scam already detected in Navarra at the beginning and middle of the year, carried out through a telephone call in which the alleged perpetrators impersonating Microsoft technicians. These people alert victims that they have detected a suspected virus or Trojan that has infected their computers.
The authors offer their services to solve the problem, asking for an amount of between 5 and 10 euros. To do this, it has been found that the alleged scammers can request the following from the victims: install various applications on the mobile phone, such as Team Viewer Team, Support or Air Droid4; enter various web pages following the instructions of the authors themselves or request the victims’ user names and passwords, as well as their personal data, such as ID or credit card numbers.
Once the scammed person accesses these requests, the alleged perpetrators have full control of the computers, accessing the bank accounts of the scammed, the National Police has reported, explaining that although there are young people scammed by this modality, the majority of the victims are elderly people with limited computer skills.
The Police have added that also on these dates around Christmas there are numerous cases of scams related to cryptocurrencies. The Autonomous Community also suffered a wave of this criminal practice last year, he explained.
It is, the Police added, “a multitude of web pages and entities that offer supposed investment services in the stock market or in the increasingly frequent virtual currencies, promising high returns and very low risk in order to obtain fraudulently a large payment by deception “. With this modality, hundreds of thousands of euros have been scammed.
Another less common way is to use the ‘Phishing’ technique, impersonating a legitimate entity such as a bank, public entity, etc., to obtain personal and banking data. The criminally obtained money is later used to invest in cryptocurrencies.
The National Police advises that, in case of being contacted by telephone by any entity or company that offers services or some type of action out of the ordinary, contact the heads of the aforementioned entities or companies and the National Police for advice.
In the face of this type of event, citizens are advised to be alert and consult our advice and operational plans on the website www.policia.es/colabora and on the Police’s social networks.
Likewise, the National Police provides advice and recommendations included within the Greater Security Plan, aimed at providing security measures and advice to the elderly to avoid both this and other criminal modalities that directly affect them.
Finally, remember that in addition to being able to appear 24 hours a day at the National Police offices to file a complaint, these events can be made known to the National Police through 091. The immediacy in the detection of the crime committed facilitates their investigation, has exposed.
Among the recommendations to avoid fraud over the Internet, the Police point out that it is necessary to keep up to date and have an antivirus that prevents viruses or malware from entering the computer.
It is requested not to open unidentified links that arrive by email or disguised as promotions. “In many cases it can lead to an infection on our computer. To avoid it, always go to official sources or even search a search engine for information on the matter. In case of doubt, always contact the financial institution in advance to ensure, prevent much better than report a posteriori, “he added.
The National Police advises taking care of the ‘digital identity’, that is, not uploading too much personal information to the internet and configuring the privacy of social networks to avoid blackmail or identity theft.
Finally, it asks not to let any stranger have access to personal WiFi, since “they could use it to get inappropriate content or carry out any harmful activity”. “If you do not want snoopers, design strong passwords, change them every so often and turn off the ‘router’ if you are away for a few days. If you are using a public network, avoid exchanging sensitive information,” he adds.
– .
