The Ministry of the Interior has launched two new videos as part of its awareness campaign on social networks to warn of cybercrime threats, specifically highlighting two common online scams: SIM card fraud and false online sales.
The initiative is part of the campaign presented on February 8 by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to deal with the increase in cybercrime, which now accounts for one in five crimes committed in Spain. The strategy includes, among other measures, an advertising campaign in the press and television, as well as the presence of experts from the National Police and Guardia Civil on radio and television programs.
Each of the videos, presented by a Police and a Guardia Civil officer, focus on the most common scams and fraud on the Internet, offering the main keys to identify them and tips to avoid becoming a victim of cybercriminals.
Fraudulent duplicate SIM cards
The first of the videos warns about the practice of fraudulent duplication of SIM cards. When a user loses coverage in a place where there should be a line, it may not be due to a specific error by the operator, but to an effect of fraud known as SIM swapping.
Cybercriminals impersonate the victim to request a duplicate SIM card from their telephone company, which leaves the original card completely inactive, replacing it and causing the user to lose coverage. On other occasions, the new SIM shares the phone number with that of the victim, who will receive confirmation messages for services and actions that they have not requested.
With the duplicate of the card, cybercriminals can make bank transfers, change the access data to online banking, passwords or the telephone number enabled for receiving messages. They also use the information acquired to sell it to third parties in forums specialised in the commission of cybercrimes.
To avoid this fraud, the Guardia Civil recommends always checking with the operator in the case of loss of coverage without an apparent explanation, and also if charges are received from the company for multiSIM services never contracted or confirmation messages that come from the bank without have been previously requested.
Online sales fraud
The National Police, for its part, offers advice in its video on how to safely use online platforms for buying and selling second-hand products and warn users that cybercriminals take advantage of their trust to sell products purchased in an illicit way.
They use these platforms to offer products at prices well below market prices to capture the attention of the buyer. In this way, through the operation known as triangular scam, cybercriminals obtain the victim’s bank card details, purchase the official product for its market price and endorse the buyer with double the cost of the original product and that of the alleged bargain, money that cybercriminals receive in full.
The National Police recommends always being wary of offers that are too attractive, reviewing comments about sellers and being suspicious of off-platform communications or payments. Finally, it warns that affiliation data or photos of the DNI should never be provided. This is highly sensitive information that can be used by criminals to commit future scams.
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