Open your eye and protect yourself! These are the 10 most cunning scams

The more technology advances, the more sophisticated coup attempts become. According to Serasa Experian, every eight seconds, a Brazilian suffers an attempted fraud — from the coup of the delivery to the technical support scam, also passing through the scam of false payment of something.

From 2019 to 2020, there was an increase of 198.1% of scams on the internet, according to ISP ( Public Security Institute), only in Rio de Janeiro. Altogether, there were about 12 thousand frauds last year.

For you to be aware of the possible problems you may face when shopping on the internet,Tilt

has listed the top scams online and gathers tips on how to identify them and also how to protect yourself.

1. Fake boleto scam

It is the most common type of fraud in Brazil. Generally, criminals make a false bill with all the victim’s data (if it is a real charge) and send by email or by WhatsApp requesting a payment. It can be a financing, a service bill (such as telephony) or payment for the purchase of products. two. Scams via SMS

O SMS is one of scammers’ favorite means of fraud attempts. These are messages asking for registration updates in banks, with links that lead to fake pages. The goal is to get personal data to access official channels as the client.

According to Mathias Naganuma, professor of the cyber defense course at Faculdade Impacta , the bandits have specialized and contracted mass message triggering systems.

For this reason, some of these SMS appear with a small number in the identifier, as well as official messages sent by applications and financial institutions.

3. Fake profile scam

They are criminals who use accounts for fake profiles on social networks. There are two types of situations: when scammers impersonate store accounts, selling undeliverable products, and when they try to impersonate someone else and simulate a virtual relationship — it’s the famous catfish.

Upon finding a target, scammers try to develop closeness and gain the person’s trust. With the ties tightened, they report some financial difficulty and ask for money to cover an emergency expense. The scam may involve false love relationships and friendships.

André Sprone, director of the company Easy Crypto Brasil, specialized in the transaction of virtual money (cryptocurrencies), warns that women are the biggest victims of this scam. “It has happened a lot during the pandemic, also using cryptocurrencies. It is a fraud that is in fashion”, he explains.4. Investment coupWith the growth in the number of investors in Brazil, new types of scams in this sector started to be planned. The most common is the one in which the fraudster promises a guaranteed return when investing in a certain stock or cryptocurrency.

“Money never falls from the sky. When something looks like it too good to be true, because it really is,” says Sprone.5. Multilevel marketing scam

Quite similar to the investment scam, in this case, scammers promise financial return as long as the victim makes a deposit initial and then indicate other people to participate in the business.

It is even possible that the victim is invited by a friend who has already been deceived in these schemes which resemble the financial pyramid.

“The scammer pays previous entrants with money from new entrants. In Brazil, this is quite common, unfortunately. Paying to enter a business and having to recruit people is a very red alert. strong,” says Sprone.6. Job scam

Some scam artists create fake pages with job ads, asking the victim to register and pay a fee for have access to opportunities.

Thus, they gain access to personal data (such as full name, address, telephone number) and also raise funds with the promise that the victim will get a replacement in the labor market — which will not happen.7. Technical Support Scam

According to Microsoft, 70% of Brazilians have already suffered this attempted fraud. Generally, crooks create pop-ups (windows that pop up on the screen) that alert your computer or cell phone has a virus and needs to be protected.

By clicking on the link, the victim is directed to a fake antivirus website, paying for a product that will not protect your computer.8. WhatsApp scam

Cloning WhatsApp has become fashionable. The bandits try to impersonate a person you know, asking you to make an urgent bank transfer because her daily limit is over.

Without suspecting that it is of a scammer, the victim ends up transferring the amount, believing that he will be reimbursed.

To give more credibility, the criminals have used photos of the people who had the Cloned WhatsApp — usually found on the profiles of social networks.

“The person who was cloned usually gives all the information. It does not activate the two-step confirmation and gives the code “, alerts Naganuma.

9. Scams via fake pages

One of the most common practices on the internet is phishing attempt The scam is used to steal personal data, money or install malware (malicious software) on victims’ devices.

According to the security company Avast, 71% of these scams are done via email and almost half of the people end up falling. 10. FGTS coup and more

According to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, popular scams also involve sending false messages using the FGTS, registering for the Emergency Assistance, or related to scheduling vaccines to steal data from victims. This contact is usually made by phone, email and/or SMS.

You must also be careful when using unfamiliar apps, which may ins taling spyware (spy software) to take ownership of your sensitive data.

How to prevent scams

Professor Naganuma says that it is always necessary to suspect the links sent by strangers. “You received a strange email, don’t click”, he says.

Among the other tips to avoid falling into scams, is always confirming the origin. For example, when paying the bill to pay off a loan or a debt in arrears, call the financial institution to confirm the data and the negotiation.

Be wary of “must see” promotions and discounts, and also avoid giving out your personal data on unknown sites.

“The bank does not send emails. Only if you are your manager, that you already have a relationship. I also do not recommend leaving your credit cards registered on the internet commerce sites”, says Naganuma.

In the case of investments , do not believe in guaranteed returns. “Especially in the cryptocurrency market, which is so volatile, it is practically impossible for anyone to guarantee a financial return. It is very suspicious,” adds Sprone.Protect your data, don’t share

This year, the number of consumers who had personal data or financial collected exceeded the 2020 numbers. There were more than 47 thousand complaints until August, while last year’s total did not reach 45 thousand.

By this, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security promotes the campaign “Protect your data, don’t share”. The idea is to help people identify coup attempts in the virtual environment.

However, Professor Mathias Naguma sees the campaign as insufficient next to the need for information that exists today to prevent online fraud.

“We have a lot of digital inclusion and little digital education. Generally, scams are not sophisticated. People use passwords not very secure [como usar data de nascimento de familiares], they give up the information and do not place two-step verification [uma barreira a mais de segurança para redes sociais, WhatsApp e emails]”, explains the teacher.

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