A new scam is being applied to deceive consumers, in which fraudsters pose as customer service representatives to steal financial data and money from victims – that’s what ESET, a threat detection company, says.
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According to the company, the goal is to establish telephone contact, but until then, they use other alternatives. Check out some of the main methods used to apply this type of scam below;
1. Fake Websites in Google Search Results
Google’s link hierarchy generally reserves the top results for legitimate, quality sites. However, scammers are pushing fake websites to the top of searches through paid advertisements or through fraudulent SEO techniques known as BlackHat SEO. In this way, the company reinforces that it is important not to blindly trust the first links offered by Google or another search engine.
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2. Fake profiles on social networks and the use of bots
ESET has observed that scammers are monitoring comments made by users on social networks such as Twitter and Instagram via certain keywords or when they tag a verified profile. When these messages refer to some kind of claim or inconvenience that needs to be resolved, fake profiles take advantage of the situation and send direct messages to consumers.
Criminals use variations of the company’s account name and the same logo, tricking victims into believing that this is the official account and an employee who wants to help with their problem. To track these cases, criminals use bots.
3. Fake WhatsApp numbers
Fraudsters contact victims via WhatsApp through fake accounts or profiles that were stolen from companies and that have the verification mark. The aim is to convince victims that this is a real employee and try to get their personal data including bank account details.
4. Wishing
According to ESET, vishing is a social engineering attack carried out via phone calls or voice messages. In this case, criminals contact the consumer to provide the new contact numbers of the entity being forged and then seek to persuade victims to share their card details. Despite not being a novelty, this type of coup is still on the rise.
How to protect yourself?
For Camilo Gutiérrez Amaya, head of the Research Laboratory at ESET Latin America, customer support scams are very common and it is important for people to be aware and never share personal information, as companies generally do not request personal data through phone calls, email or via social media. “Much less share this information if we are contacted unexpectedly”, says Camilo, in an e-mail sent to Canaltech.
Read the article on Canaltech.
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