Cybercriminals are increasingly fine-tuning their deception techniques for bank customers in Spain. The most popular formula to date is the Phishing, that is, sending emails supplanting banks that request personal and banking information from the user to operate with their money. However, a new method is on the rise in the field of cyber-scams: the smishing. The process is similar, but this time the scammers send the fraudulent information by SMSreplicate with an enormous degree of similarity the websites of banks (such as that of Abanca) and add one more element of persuasion at the end to trick the user.
Some will have realized the deception and others not, but what is certain is that the alert for the smishing grows in our country. In fact, in the last month Google searches for this have skyrocketed. SMS scam, with online consultation peaks on February 22, March 18 and April 4, according to data from Google Trends. Abanca customers are part of the recently affected groups, but they are not the only ones, so extreme caution should be exercised.
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He smishing is one of the latest techniques in vogue among cybercriminals to steal bank details of a person and make use of their money. This elaborately orchestrated method is divided into four steps: sending the customer an SMS that pretends to be the bank, invitation to click a link that appears to be the official of the entity, a request to the client to enter data related to their electronic banking and, finally, a telephone call by the fraudsters impersonating the bank, alerting them to card payments and asking the client for codes. If the latter falls for the deception, the fraudster will be able to make operations immediately through the electronic banking.
From Abanca they have informed their clients of this fraudulent operation, indicating specifically how the scam related to this bank works:
- In the first place, the SMS is characterized by alerting the client of “suspicious activities” in his account. The sender can even be “Abanca”, although it really is not.
- At the end of the SMS you are asked to click on a link. This links It is customary to bear the name of the bank to make it more credible.
- If the client accesses it, a web page very similar to that of Abanca opens, with the logo and style practically identical. In this portal, the introduction of login data is requested, such as the user either ID, electronic banking password and even the phone number associated with that account.
- The last step, and this is new, is receiving a call from scammers posing as the Abanca cybersecurity department. Normally it is an individual person, who alerts the client of fraud in his account and of the need to provide codes to solve the problem. However, what you really want with those passwords is to make immediate purchases with the account owner’s money. In this sense, it is common for him to request access codes that the user receives by SMS on the mobile to create virtual cards and operate with them. Once he has what he wants, he usually hangs up without warning.
The computer scams They are the order of the day in our country. In fact, only in the fourth quarter of 2022, 375,506 were produced, 22.9% more than in the same period of 2021, according to the latest Crime Balance of the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore, there are a series of premises that anyone with an account in a bank should know:
- Data and keys are never shared: Abanca emphasizes that it never asks its customers for card details or to carry out operations from electronic or mobile banking.
- suspicious about urgent messages: if you receive an SMS like the one described above, read it calmly and several times. If he invites you to do something urgently, be wary. You can also check your bank’s SMS history to see their style and compare. For example, as an affected Abanca client pointed out to Infobae Spain, in the SMS of the scam the sender was “Abanca”, while in the bank officials, “ABANCA” was written in all capital letters.
- Don’t click on unknown links: as a general rule, the bank does not send you links and, if it does, it is usually to its main page indicating it, in this case, as “abanca.com”. If the link you receive is different, be suspicious and don’t open it.
- Identify the scammer on the call: if you make the mistake of reaching the last step of the smishing you may be in time to fix it. If the person who claims to belong to the bank’s security department asks you for passwords that reach your mobile, never tell them, hang up and contact the bank’s telephone numbers to report the situation. A worker of the entity will never ask you for that data. In this sense, the Abanca free phone for clients it is 900 815 525 if you are in Spain, while if you are abroad the correct number is +34 981 910 522.
- Call the bank immediately: if you fall for a cyber scam you should contact the bank as soon as possible in order to block cards or bank accounts and proceed to resolve the situation.
The bank is not always obliged to return the money to the client. In this sense, the Royal Decree-Law 19/2018, of November 23, on payment services and other urgent financial measures, indicates in its article 45 that “in the event that an unauthorized payment operation is executed, the payer’s payment service provider will refund the amount of the unauthorized operation immediately and, in any case, no later than the end of the business day following the one on which the operation was observed or notified (…)”.
However, this Royal Decree-Law also states that the client will assume the losses from unauthorized payment transactions if “it has incurred such losses for having acted fraudulently or for having breached, deliberately or due to gross negligence, one or several obligations established in article 41.” In this regard, the client is obliged to “take all reasonable measures to protect their personalized security credentials” and “in case of loss, theft or misappropriation of the payment instrument or its unauthorized use (… ) notify it “without undue delay as soon as it becomes aware of it”.
In short, the user must promptly notify the bank of any case of smishingfill in the fraud protocol forms available at the bank, file a complaint with a police station and send it to the bank along with the rest of the requested documentation. The entity will determine if it reimburses the money to the client. In case of not doing so, the client can file a claim with the Bank of Spain, having previously claimed his bank and the client’s ombudsman. Also, it is worth reviewing the insurance of the banking products contracted, since some cardsfor example, include coverage for this type of situation.
