Recently, there have been more frequent cases of telephone scammers attacking Belarusians.
Moreover, the villains use various deception schemes, gain the trust of citizens, and convince them of the need to part with their personal savings.
Typically, scammers pose as employees of banks, law enforcement agencies, post offices, mobile phone companies, bosses, friends, etc.
The press service of the State Control Committee of Belarus told in its official Telegram channel how not to become a victim of telephone scammers.
Signs of a telephone scammer
The following signs are named that it is a scammer calling you:
- you are required to immediately perform certain actions;
– you are put under psychological pressure, rushed and even intimidated;
– they are trying to trick you into giving up your personal data (bank card information, PIN code, one-time password from SMS);
– if a person refuses to provide data, they threaten that the money from the card will be taken by fraudsters.
The State Control Committee advises paying attention to the most popular fraudulent schemes among scammers.
Relatives
They call you and say that your relative allegedly got into an accident or was in the hospital, and ask you to pay a fine for him or her or pay for treatment.
Unfortunately, the scheme works. In this case, it is recommended to call your relatives back.
Lottery
They call and say that you have won a prize, but to receive it you need to transfer money to the specified account. This is a scam.
Bank card
They call, introduce themselves as a bank employee, and say that your card is blocked.
The “employee” can also report unauthorized transactions with the account.
Money transfer
They offer to transfer money to a bank card and ask you to provide a three-digit code to verify the authenticity of the card.
"Law enforcement officers"
They call and introduce themselves as police officers, asking for help in catching “dirty” bank employees.
To do this, they advise opening a line of credit and giving the “policeman” the account details.
They may also say that a loan has been issued in your name, and therefore, in order to protect your funds, they suggest transferring them to a “safe” account.
Viruses
The messenger receives a notification about a new message, which can be read by clicking on the link.
Most likely, this is a virus that can provide scammers with complete control over your smartphone.
It is recommended in principle to never follow unfamiliar links.
The State Control Committee calls on people not to fall for the tricks of scammers.
Stop talking to them and call the information numbers of your bank, mobile operator or the law enforcement agency on whose behalf the scammers are calling, the message says.
For reference
Telephone fraud is one of the methods of fraud using social engineering, which consists of the fact that attackers, using telephone communication and playing a certain role (an employee of a bank or law enforcement agency, a buyer, etc.), under various pretexts lure confidential information from the holder of a payment card or encourage them to perform certain actions with their bank account / payment card.
