The pandemic has accelerated the pace of the digital transformation, which means good news for society as a whole. However, this digitalisation has also come with increased exposure to digital fraud, for businesses and individuals alike.
Of all the types of threats that exist, one of the most common is social engineering, which the Incibe National Cybersecurity Institute defines as ‘a technique used by cybercriminals to gain the user’s trust and get them to do something under their manipulation and deception, such as running a malicious programme, providing their private passwords or making purchases from fraudulent websites’.
In recent months, we have been witnessing numerous cases of social engineering by cybercriminals posing mainly as banks or large tech companies. We have already told you about it in other posts such as these ones on What is social engineering and how can I protect myself from it or How to avoid phone fraud from fake tech support. What is the goal of this technique? To get personal data and the credentials to access our accounts and personal data fraudulently.
One of the most recent cases of vishing (a combination of the words ‘voice’ and ‘phishing’) are telephone scams that make the user believe that the person contacting them is a technical support representative of a large tech company, more specifically a well-known US e-commerce company. The person assures the victim that fraudulent transactions are being carried out from their account and that, in order to fix the situation, it will be necessary to make a series of transfers that will subsequently be returned. Subsequently, the duped user is asked to download an application on their computer or smartphone which the cybercriminal can use to take control of the device. Sometimes, scammers will even know their victims’ bank information at the time of the call, as well as the latest purchases they have made using the platform.
What should we do?
As we at Banco Sabadell always say, the most important thing to avoid this type of fraud is prevention. In other words, under no circumstances should we ever provide information of a personal and private nature to anyone who asks for it, especially when it involves personal or financial data. No company will ever proactively contact a user or customer through its technical support line if the customer has not requested this beforehand.
It is also important that, if you have been the victim of such a scam, you report the case to the police, so that investigators and the companies themselves have as much information as possible about the fraud and its modus operandi.
Please keep in mind that Banco Sabadell has a support team at your disposal 24/7 on 963 085 000, at info@bancsabadell.com, or on our social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram).
